Calligraphy

[Mark Nornes]

As a matter of fact, I was going to ask the same question because I am  
starting a new writing project on this very topic. My starting point  
was originally Eisenstein and Astruc, but I am fascinated first and  
foremost with the seeming affiliation of this vibrant styling of  
script and the moving image. Two beautiful arts simply made for each  
other.

My first stab at presenting it will be this July at Kinema Club X.  
This summer, a graduate student and I are putting together a corpus.  
But here are a few I like:

Red Cliff has some nice play with radicals (but not translated well---- 
a moment crying for abusive subs) and with rain drops bleeding  
characters for peace as the main female character cries.

Yukoku's calligraphy is by Mishima, including the English intertitles  
complete with smudged mistakes.

Akitsu onsen's title calligraphy is the most equisite I've seen on  
film. The most funky: Kao, which also has a great end title(I heard  
the calligraphy was by Teshigawara).

City of Sadness has intertitles calligraphy, and a wrenching scene  
with a calligraphic message a prisoner  to his wife, brushed in blood  
before his execution.

Calligraphic spells slapped on foreheads that stop hopping vampires  
cold, in Mr.  Vampire and other crazy Homg Kong horror comedies.

Ugetsu is another film with calligraphy on skin. Why think Greenaway  
when you have Mizoguchi? But the best and cutest: Gewaltopia.

Silent film intertitles were often calligraphy. So were early subs in  
Japan, and the current fonts mimic those styles.

And a couple that might not count:

Tagging in Samurai Champloo 18.

I have heard of 1950s Chinese opera films where letters are actually  
blank---an extreme example of form over content if there ever was one.

And then there are calligraphs using other media and methods of  
inscription, such as the sutra carved into the dock at the end of  
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...Spring.

Once you consider the importance of calligraphy in East Asian cinema,  
you realize it is ubiquitous. I look forward to seeing what they do  
with this.

Markus

(Sent from my iPod, so please excuse the brevity and mistakes.)

On Apr 30, 2010, at 12:44 PM, "Jonathan M. Hall" <jmhall at pomona.edu>  
wrote:

> Alex,
>
> There are many versions of it, but the program would not be complete  
> without iimura Takahiko's WHITE CALLIGRAPHY.
> I've seen it screened as well as done as a performance piece.
>
> And then, there is the obvious "Mimi-nashi Hoichi" section of  
> Kobayashi's KWAIDAN.
> Is that too obvious?
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> 差出人: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu [owner- 
> KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] は Alex Zahlten [Alex.Zahlten at gmx 
> .de] の代理
> 送信日時: 2010年4月30日 13:30
> 宛先: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> 件名: Calligraphy
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> the German Film Museum is planning a screening of films in which  
> calligraphy plays a prominent role; this is not focused on film from  
> Japan, but they have asked for some Japanese examples. Anything come  
> to mind?
>
> Alex
> --
> alex at nipponconnection.de
>
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