chance to sub five films

[SYBIL.THORNTON at asu.edu]

Hi,

Always check the Pacific Film Archive:  they have an enormous collection of 
Japanese films from the 50s and 60s, many of which have subtitles because they 
were screened in California:  Nikkatsu, Toho, Shochiku, and Daiei (only two 
Toei films).  The complete catalogue is online with indications of subtitles.

Cheers,
SA Thornton

Quoting Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>:

> 
> 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
> 
>