AW: Bordwell on Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan

[Alexander Jacoby]

I'm sure many people are aware of this already, but the French version of the film included not two but three condensations, with the two period stories sensibly being balanced by a Kiyohiko Ushihara gendai-geki, Daitokai: Rodo hen. This is often translated as "The Life of Workers in the Big City", but "The Big City" was actually the title of a two-part film, so this is more properly the "Workers Episode" of "The Big City". It was one of the several Ushihara films (eight in total, I believe?) which starred a young Kinuyo Tanaka opposite Denmei Suzuki; they were then a popular romantic pairing in Japan. The French version is preserved by the Cinematheque Francaise, and was shown at Pordenone in 2001. I remember the Ushihara segment being ably directed and rather engaging, with attractive imagery of Tokyo c.1930.
   
  ALEX
   
  

Roland Domenig <roland.domenig at univie.ac.at> 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



-----Urspr?ngliche 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 Cin?math?que 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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