Question re 1940 Toho Musical Film Extravaganza Etc.

[Roger Macy]

On the subject of early colour films, I see that the upcoming 'Cinema Ritrovato' at Bologna has a series, Il colore più grande della vita, in which Shin Heike Monogatari, 1955 is to be shown.  There still doesn't seem to be a specific date for the films on the website
http://www.cinetecadibologna.it/cinemaritrovato2009/ev/Programma
Roger

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Roberts" <mroberts37 at mail-central.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 7:00 AM
Subject: Re: Question re 1940 Toho Musical Film Extravaganza Etc.


Michael,

I've always heard of Kinoshita's "Carmen kokyo ni kaeru" (1951)  
described as the first color film in Japan.

"Carmen" was filmed using a Fujicolor reversal film made available in  
1950. The film speed was quite slow (El. 10), and this may have been  
part of the rationale for shooting most of the scenes as exteriors  
(lots of natural light). My recollection of the color quality is that  
it looked super-saturated, especially the reds, though the copy I saw  
was likely from a recent restoration, and who knows what was tweaked  
in the process.

At the time, I'm guessing that the color quality of the Fujicolor  
process was not entirely satisfactory to the studios, and this was the  
reason that Eastmancolor and Agfacolor were used during the 1950s.  
E.g. Daiei's first color film, "Jigokumon" (1953), was filmed in  
Eastmancolor. Toho's first color film was apparently "Hana no naka no  
musumetachi" (1953), although it seems there were some experiments at  
Toho dating back to 1946.

I would imagine that processes such as Fujicolor, Eastmancolor, and  
Agfacolor were all chosen over Technicolor for reasons of cost.  
Originally, Technicolor required a more elaborate set of optics with a  
beam-splitter, and a special dye-transfer process for developing and  
producing prints. The cameras were quite expensive and at the  
beginning the American studios had to rent them. The Technicolor  
camera was obsolesced in the early 1950s with the introduction of a  
"Monopak" single-strip color film, but it was still very expensive and  
it seems the film still needed to be processed by a Technicolor lab.  
The apparent advantage of Eastmancolor was that it was single-strip  
and did not involve a proprietary developing process.

While 1951 is generally cited as the date of the earliest color film  
in Japan, I see that the JMDB lists two films from 1949 that included  
some color segments:

新妻会議
http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1949/by000080.htm

虹男
http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1949/by000950.htm

And here's a short film from 1948 about boxing that was filmed in color:

ねずみの拳闘
http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1948/bx000780.htm

For more details, you might look at an article by Hisashi Okajima  
called "Color Film Restoration in Japan: Some Examples" (Journal of  
FIlm Preservation, FIAF, 10/2003), that includes more history on the  
origins of color processes in the Japanese cinema.

Best regards,

M. Roberts



On Jun 22, 2009, at 1:26 AM, <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> <mccaskem at georgetown.edu 
 > wrote:

> Dear Faith Bach,
>
> Thank you very much for the information on Songoku. It was very kind  
> and very
> thoughtful of you to look into it and send your findings. I am glad  
> that you got a
> chance to see Songoku - you're very fortunate to have the resources  
> to do so. I
> am pretty much limited to films I can get in DVD form from Amazon  
> Japan, or
> from dealers willing to send material overseas.
>
> I looked in Galbraith's new book, "The Toho Studios Story," which I  
> just got,
> and it seems (155-156) that Yamamoto Kajiro remade Songoku in 1959,  
> using
> the same special effects person as in 1940, Tsuburaya Eiji. It's in  
> Agfacolor.
>
> Agfacolor tended to make everything look bluish in the 1940s, and  
> mostly in
> the 1950s as well. It was originally a German film, but US  
> Occupation outlets
> sold it in Japan after WWII. Technicolor was better, but perhaps for  
> some reason
> Yamamoto liked it, or got a special deal, or couldn't get  
> Technicolor film, even
> in 1959. I saw a rare US grade B Agfacolor movie made in the 1950s,  
> about the
> Civil War, and everything was bluish, except the Union Army  
> uniforms, which
> became super-blue, deep indigo to purple.
>
> In any case, it's clear that you indeed saw the classic 1940  
> original version,
> since the remake was in color, and the cast was different. It would  
> be wonderful
> if some entity could put that out now on a DVD, with perhaps the  
> 1959 version
> as well. It would be interesting to compare it with "The Wizard of  
> Oz."
>
> My inquiry about Toho color was based on the fact that I saw  
> "Tohokaraa 東宝カ
> ラー" mentioned in connection with Songoku, in the Toho historical  
> item
> attached, though there were only B&W stills. I didn't think Japanese  
> studios
> made color films in 1940, but as I recall part of The Wizard in Oz  
> is in B&W, so I
> wondered if the Songoku picture had a color segment stashed away in  
> it. Or
> something like the pink smoke in the otherwise B&W "High & Low,"  
> Kurosawa's
> first bit of color. Thanks very much to your special efforts,  
> though, it's now clear
> that there's no color in Songoku at all.
>
> The other alternative was that "Tohokaraa" was some kind of special  
> metaphor,
> but that seemed very odd and peculiar, or perhaps completely  
> mistaken, so I
> did not want to mention it online as a possibility.
>
> After receiving your email, I went back to the source again, and it  
> looks as if, as
> in the attachments, it was idiosyncratically used, as a sort of  
> proprietary slogan
> or buzzword, to refer to performers or performances that were stylish,
> cosmopolitan, etc. - perhaps meaning somthing like "cool" today. Like
> "TohoCool," maybe.
>
> It looks as if perhaps Toho never again used the term "Tohokaraa,"  
> the way it
> later used "Tohoscope," perhaps because of this earlier usage. It  
> seems as if
> Toho later used "Toho/Karaa" to mean "Toho films in color."
>
> I'm very impressed by your expertise, and I hope I may learn more  
> about your
> research. It sounds as if you know a great deal about 1930s and  
> 1940s films
> and performers.
>
> If you're researching 1940s and later Toho days, if you haven't  
> already seen it,
> there's a 2003 book by Takase Masahiro, 「東宝砧撮影所物 
> 語」ISBN4-924609-
> 82-X, which you might perhaps be interested in. Takase's also  
> written another
> follow-up book 「東宝監督群像―砧の青春」2006, ISBN-10:  
> 4924609927 ISBN-
> 13: 978-4924609921, which I've not yet seen.
>
> Thank you once again for your email, which I appreciate very much  
> indeed.
>
> With Very Best Wishes,
>
> Michael McCaskey
> Georgetown Univ.
> Wash. DC
>
> PS
> I realize now that I've finished writing that this is on list. If  
> the attachment does
> not come through, I can send it to you off list, if you'd like to  
> send your email
> address to me, mccaskem at georgetown.edu. Now I must go and proofread a
> book review, so I can get it sent out today.
>
>
> <孫悟空、東宝カラー、東宝／カラー、etc.doc>
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