More on Ozu

[Michael McCaskey]

Dear Prof. Minaguchi,

You are indeed an important authority in your field, and I have sought out your article in English. I am fortunately able to read Japanese as well, and I look forward to reading your recent book, 映画の母性―三益愛子を巡る母親像の日米比較 ASIN: 4882029804, which I've ordered via Amazon Japan.

I've also just recently found a helpful article by Sara Ross, "The Americanization of Tsuru Aoki: Orientalism, Melodrama, Star Image, and the New Woman," Camera Obscura 2005 20 (3 60), p. 129. As you know, Aoki was married to Sessue (Sesshu) Hayakawa, and their joint career covers 50 years in the making of Japan-related US films, Japan-related French films, and films made in Japan--going back to 1913.

Many scholarly works approach film history from the angle of the director, but there are not so many books that study film history from the perspective of the actors who made that history, as your book does.

With Best Wishes,

Michael McCaskey

----- Original Message -----
From: kiseko minaguchi <kiko at main.teikyo-u.ac.jp>
Date: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 3:24 am
Subject: Re: More on Ozu

> Michel,
> Let me add to the previous email that my article on ICONICS vol.6, 
> "Yamamoto 
> Satsuo's Hahanokyoku:Making a Father's Story of Stella Dallas" is 
> written in 
> English.
> Minaguchi
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> ??? : "Michael McCaskey" <mccaskem at georgetown.edu>
> ?? : <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> ???? : 2006?7?13? 0:10
> ?? : More on Ozu
> 
> 
> > (Apologies if you get two, or even three of these--from a 
> notification 
> > from our computer center, it looks as if the sending did not go 
> through 
> > the first or even the second time, for some reason--but one or 
> both 
> > somehow may have somehow reached you after all.)
> >
> > Dear Alex,
> >
> > Thank you very much indeed for the confirmation and the new 
> additional 
> > Stella Dallas information.
> >
> > What I have found so far is as follows:
> >
> > Yamamoto Satsuo’s 1937 film Haha no Kyoku, with a 149-minute 
> script by 
> > Kimura Chiyo’o and Yasumi Toshio, released by Toei in two parts, 
> on Dec. 
> > 11 and Dec. 21, 1937, with the actress Hanabusa Yuriko as 
> Stella, and Hara 
> > Setsuko as her daughter, was based on a novel with the same name 
> by 
> > Yoshiya Nobuko (1896-1973). This novel in turn was a Japanese 
> adaptation 
> > of Stella Dallas, by the American popular novelist Olive Higgins 
> Prouty 
> > (1882-1974). The American original by Prouty, as well as its 
> Japanese 
> > derivative by Yoshiya, was yet another saga of a parent, a 
> mother in this 
> > case, sacrificing everything for a child, a daughter. (It seems 
> that many 
> > of the Ozu films from the same era also used this "sacrificing, 
> silently 
> > suffering" parent image.)
> >
> > Yamamoto was also influenced by the 1925 American film version 
> of Stella 
> > Dallas, directed by Henry King. Another American film version 
> was made in 
> > 1937, directed by King Vidor, with Barbara Stanwyck as Stella. 
> Yet another 
> > American remake, Stella, appeared in 1990, with many changes to 
> the 
> > original storyline, written by Robert Getchell (Mommie Dearest) 
> and 
> > directed by John Erman, with Bette Midler as Stella. Stella 
> Dallas was 
> > also used as the basis of a soap opera of the same name, a 
> perennial 
> > standby which was on the radio in America for 18 years, 
> broadcast on NBC 
> > every weekday, from June 6, 1938 through Jan. 6, 1956 
> > (http://www.old-time.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=74&), accessed 
> July 8, 
> > 2006.
> >
> > Yoshiya Nobuko was a prolific and highly popular fiction writer, 
> and from 
> > 1922 to 1968 a total of 58 films were made based on her stories 
> and 
> > novels, albeit that a number of two-part and remake films are 
> included in 
> > the total (http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/person/p0073580.htm, accessed 
> July 8, 
> > 2006). Haha no Kyoku was remade in 1955 by Shin Toei, with a new 
> 99-minute 
> > script by Sasahara Ryozo, directed by Koishi Ei’ichi. It starred 
> Mimasu 
> > Aiko (1910-82), an actress who played the role of the matriarch 
> in many of 
> > the 50 movies she subsequently appeared in through 1981. 
> Hanabusa Yuriko 
> > (1900-1970), the mother in the 1937 version, also played a 
> maternal role 
> > in many of the 117 subsequent films she was in, through 1970.
> >
> > Minaguchi-san also has a very good new book out on Mimasu Aiko, 
> her 
> > mother-roles in films, and comparisons with US film material, 
> which I've 
> > ordered from Amazon Japan:
> > 
> &#26144;&#30011;&#12398;&#27597;&#24615;&#8213;&#19977;&#30410;&#24859;&#23376;&#12434;&#24033;&#12427;&#27597;&#35242;&#20687;&#12398;&#26085;&#31859;&#27604;&#36611; 
> > (&#21336;&#34892;&#26412;)
> > &#27700;&#21475; &#32000;&#21218;&#23376;
> > &#21336;&#34892;&#26412;: 268&#12506;&#12540;&#12472;
> > &#20986;&#29256;&#31038;: &#24425;&#27969;&#31038; (2005/04)
> > ASIN: 4882029804
> > Minaguchi-san was too modest to mention it, I think, so I 
> thought it would 
> > be good for me to mention it here. I hope you and she will 
> correct any 
> > errors or omissions there may be in what I wrote above.
> >
> > Thanks Once Again for Your Very Helpful Information,
> >
> > With Best Wishes,
> >
> > Michael
> >
> >
> > 
> 
>