Bordwell on Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan

[Mark Nornes]

I was reading David Bordwell's blog entry mourning the passing on  
Edward Yang and came across his fascinating description of a film  
that just showed at Cinema Ritrovato (dated July 6).

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In the early 1930s, Japanese companies explored the possibility of  
exporting their films to Europe and the US. One result of these  
initiatives was Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan, a 1932  
German compilation created by Carl Koch. It originally consisted of  
three films from the Shochiku studio, condensed and supplied with  
German intertitles. The original films were silent, so, oddly enough,  
synced Japanese dialogue was added.



In the version screened here, only two episodes were presented. What  
beauties they were! Since many of the 1920s and 1930s Japanese films  
that survive look quite weatherbeaten, it was wonderful to see, in  
the print from the Cinémathèque Suisse, how gorgeous quite ordinary  
movies from this era could be.

The first story, Kaito samimaro (orig. 1928), deals with a young  
samurai rescuing his beloved from the clutches of a corrupt priest.  
Brisk and beautifully shot, it came to the sort of frothing swordplay  
climax typical of the period—rapid cutting, dynamic tracking, and  
slashing assaults aimed at the camera. Kagaribi (1928), about a young  
vassal betrayed by his corrupt lord, likewise ended with a protracted  
action scene capped by a jolting climax. A prolonged tracking shot  
follows the young man’s former lover as she backs away from him, but  
then we cut to a full shot. With a single stroke he kills her,  
jaggedly ripping a paper door in his follow-through. Both stand  
motionless for a moment before she falls. A conventional finish, but  
no less eye-smiting for that. For more on the power of this action- 
cinema tradition, see an earlier entry on this site.
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