Question re 1940 Toho Musical Film Extravaganza Etc.

[mccaskem at georgetown.edu]

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. 

  
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ?????????????????etc.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 382976 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20090621/eb692a48/attachment.doc