emigration in Japanese Girls at the Harbor

[Eija Niskanen]

This brings to my mind a question of different kind: where are
materials on Yokohama Cinema Society stored? I once went to the
Yokohama Historical Archive, and they had nothing.

Eija

On 4/15/09, Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Alex,
> And I now notice, on p19 of the 1991 Yamagata IDFF catalogue, 'Media Wars'
> (and thus, also presumably in 'Japan/America Film Wars'), Shimizu Akira says
> that Yokohama Cinema's The Southern Cross Beckons, Minami jujisei wa maneku
> (1938) was 'intended to promote Japanese immigration, and introduced the
> natural scenery of various South American countries'.  That's very much
> beyond the Japanese empire and decidedly later than Minato no nihon musume,
> so I stand well and truly corrected.
> Roger
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alexander Jacoby
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 1:40 AM
> Subject: Re: emigration in Japanese Girls at the Harbor
>
>
> Emigration features in quite a few of Japanese silent films as a positive
> conclusion or at least as a potential solution to problems. Shimizu's
> Eternal Pearl (Fue no shiratama, 1929) is another example, and I've seen
> others, though I'd have to check my records to name them.
>
> In the mid- to late- thirties, emigration is still presented as a solution
> to problems, but by then, the destination is Korea or Manchuria. See for
> instance Shimazu's An Older Brother and Her Younger Sister (Ani to sono
> imoto, 1939), with its ending at the airport. Grass gets caught in the wheel
> as the plane takes off, and the last line is "That grass will grow in
> China."
>
> ALEX
>
>
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 8/4/09, Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
> From: Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: emigration in Japanese Girls at the Harbor
> To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, 8 April, 2009, 1:20 AM
>
>
> 
> Dear KineJapaners,
> If anyone cares to suggest answers to some questions on Japanese Girls at
> the Harbor, I would much appreciate it.  It would be nice to think that
> Keiko McDonald's promised book on Shimizu has a midwife somewhere, but in
> the meantime a viewing has aroused my curiosity.  One advantage of a boxed
> set of a director's films is that you can spread their viewing out, rather
> than keep within the short concentration of a cinethecque convoy.
>
> I got round to watching Shimizu's Minato no nihon musume last night which
> was more than up to expectation.   What surprised me at the end was how
> Shimizu could show emigration as a positive and morally redeeming conclusion
> to his story in 1933.  Although Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, in her Nippon Modern,
> says just that Sunako disappears in the end; William Drew, in his Midnight
> Eye piece, says that 'Sunako ultimately takes charge of her destiny by going
> abroad with her artist-paramour in search of a new life' - a reading with
> which I concur.
> Although the dialogue (and perhaps the script submitted to the censors?)
> does not mention emigration, the direction of the ship out of Yokohama, and
> the opening sequence, of the Canadian Pacific gangplank onto the 'Empress of
> Russia' seems to leave little doubt.  I went back and checked the beginning
> to see if it was a revealed flash-back - it's not - but this did remind me
> that I had tried to adjust my set when the opening pan seemed to have the
> bottom cut off, leaving ships and foreground apparently unsupported by water
> or quayside.  But the contrast to the closing pan, showing the flotsam and
> jetsam left behind in Japan has to be deliberate.  The paintings of Sunako,
> in her old-world guise as a bar hostess/prostitute, which she asks her
> partner to jettison from the ship, mysteriously do not fade or wash away,
> but remain in full appearance, clinging to the Japan shore, whilst the
> redeemed couple sail away.
>
> Has emigration in Japanese cinema (beyond the Japanese empire) been
> discussed or observed previously ?
>
> Are there other such filmic examples of emigration  portrayed in a positive
> light ?
>
> Can anyone suggest likely western movies of the time that inspired the story
> ?  Two couples who have no family seems very Hollywood. (The writer of the
> original story, 北林透馬, isn't in WINE - still looking for suitable
> directories.).
>
> Would a silent film in 1933 be suitable for an émigré market ?
>
> Roger
>


-- 
Eija Niskanen
c/o Hirasawa
Koenji-kita 4-2-10
Suginami-ku
Tokyo 166-0002