AW: Bordwell on Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan

[Mark Nornes]

Fascinating. So how did these films do in the German language  
markets? Where there others entering distribution?

Markus





On Jul 25, 2007, at 5:56 AM, Roland Domenig wrote:

> 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.
>
> <winmail.dat>