chance to sub five films

[Aaron Gerow]

On 2006.9.28, at 01:42  AM, Christine Marran wrote:

> We have a chance here at University of Minnesota to subtitle five 
> Japanese films that have never been subbed.  Any requests for films 
> that we really need in the canon of subbed Japanese film?

Defining "Japanese films that have never been subbed" can be a bit 
tricky. There are a lot of subtitled film prints floating around that 
for one reason or another, have never been easily available. For 
instance, there are subtitles prints of many Daiei films around 
somewhere (since Daiei made a point in the 50s and 60s of trying to 
sell their films abroad), but most are not in rental circulation. Then 
there are the hundreds of films the Japan Foundation handles. Even some 
individual filmmakers have subtitled versions of their works that you 
don't know about unless you ask them (I vaguely recall that Hara's 
Kyokushiteki erosu is subtitled). Researching what has really been 
subtitled is not easy, and then there's the fact that even if you find 
that there is a subtitled version in existence, that doesn't mean it is 
available for classroom use.

The choice also can depend on what prints are available. Are you going 
to do this on computer and produce a DVD? Or a real subtitled film 
print? Will you be working with the negative or a positive print? Or a 
DVD? All of those pose problems of availability.

That said, my vote is for five prewar or wartime films. There's a lot 
written about in Burch, for instance, that is not readily available, 
such as Ito Daisuke, Ishida Tamizo, Yamanaka Sadao, or Itami Mansaku. 
Humanity and Paper Balloons has come out on DVD in the UK and the JF 
has a subtitled print of Hyakuman-ryo, but the subtitles on the latter 
are pretty bad. Films that I always show clips of in class include 
Makino Masahiro films such as Chikemuri Takadanobaba, Oshidori 
Utagassen and Awa no odoriko. I think there are a lot of people out 
there, especially outside of film studies proper, who would like to see 
more wartime films available like Hawaii-Malay okikaisen or Shina no 
yoru.

For postwar work, I would urge you to do some of the 1950s Toei 
jidaigeki. Toei was by far the most successful studio in the Golden Age 
of Japanese film but it is virtually absent in foreign film histories 
because they were just "entertainment" and not "art." But the Fuefuki 
doji films, for instance, are great and tell us a lot about popular 
film culture beyond the "masters." Doing a popular film of one of the 
prewar third tier studios may also be interesting from the standpoint 
of "vernacular modernism," such as the Ramon Kosaburo Kensei Araki 
Mataemon (Matsuda has this) or one of Hayafusa Hideto's films.

Also for the postwar, there is a need for other popular genres such as 
comedies (Crazy Cats, more Kawashima Yuzo, Morisaki Azuma, Maeda 
Yoichi, early Yamada Yoji), musicals (Kimi mo shusse ga dekiru, Sannin 
musume films), or some series like the Shacho series.

I could go on forever, but I guess I'll stop here.


Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu