AW: Bordwell on Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan

[Roland Domenig]

In Germany and Austria KAITO SAMIMARO was not only shown abridged in the compilation mentioned by Bordwell, but the whole film was released under the title FLUCHT NACH YEDO (Escape to Edo). In fact it was the first Japanese feature film that got released in Austria - in Vienna it opened a couple of days before Kinugasa Teinosukes JUJIRO (Crossroads/Im Schatten des Yoshiwara) in February 1931. In Germany both films had already been shown a year before. KAITO SAMIMARO was announced as film directed by Kinugasa, but actually it was directed by Kinugasa's long time assistant director Koishi Eiichi featuring Hayashi Chojiro (Hasegawa Kazuo) and Kinugasa's later wife Yajima Akiko. Cameraman, by the way, was Tsuburaya Eiichi (Eiji), who later came to fame as father of all Japanese film monsters. 
The confusion about the director may have come from the fact that Kinugasa had been visiting Germany at the time. The routes of both films were different, however. Whereas Kinugasa has taken his film himself, KAITO SAMIMARO was brought by Kawakita Nagamasa, the president of Towa Shoji, who visited Germany at around the same time as Kinugasa. The other films used for the NIPPON compilation were also taken to Germany by Kawakita. 

A side note for you, Mark: Kinugasa had got made German translations for the intertitles of JUJIRO in Japan, but when he showed the film to Fritz Lang at the UFA Studios in Berlin, Lang told him that the German translation doesn't make sense, so Kinugasa let make a new translation of the intertitles for the German release. 

Roland Domenig
Institute of East Asian Studies
Vienna University



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu im Auftrag von Mark Nornes
Gesendet: Mi 25.07.2007 07:21
An: KineJapan
Betreff: Bordwell on Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan
 
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).

_________________

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.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 4856 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20070725/63d32c97/attachment.bin