question about films set in film studios

[Faith Bach]

Michael,
This may or may not be relevant, but it has always been my feeling  
that the Japanese equivalent to Western "studio films" is their rich  
genre of geidoh films about actors (usually, but not always, kabuki)  
and variety performers, popular from the 30s thru' the early 50s  
(including during the war) in both period and modern guise, and  
replete with full-production onstage theatrical segments.  In  
addition, many early films --such as matatabi adventures and period  
mysteries-- not specifically "about" a theatre world nonetheless have  
theatrical troupes in supporting or decorative positions.  In the  
English-speaking world films about theatre of any kind are relatively  
few on the ground.  Japan had, and still has, a vibrant theatre  
culture whose popularity quite surpasses that in the West;  shimpa  
melodramas about actors and the theatre world persist even now and  
lent their stories to many early films.  The reasoning may have gone:  
why make films about films when the theatre is so imbedded in the  
public consciousness and so much more glamorous anyhow?
(PS: Female stage actors and performers figure prominently in many of  
these theatrical films.)
Faith

On Nov 15, 2008, at 3:27 PM, <mjraine at uchicago.edu>  
<mjraine at uchicago.edu> wrote:

> This is a kind of follow-up to my previous comment about
> reflexivity and intertextuality in prewar Japanese films. It
> seems to me that quite a few prewar films from around the
> world are set in film studios, for reasons of glamour and
> romance but also a kind of fascination with / expose of the
> apparatus itself. But I can't think of any prewar Japanese
> films with a studio setting, and only one or two (like
> Naruse's Street Without End) that even mention actresses.
> There are quite a few in the postwar and the earliest I can
> think of is the Korean-Japanese Hanto no haru but that was
> made during the war. Can anyone think of any examples of
> prewar Japanese films with scenes shot in a film studio?
>
> Michael

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