'Tendency films'

[mccaskem at georgetown.edu]

It seems most likely that you are correct, according to standard Japanese 
mainstream dictionary references. It's possible that the term "keikou eiga" was 
revived later, but if so these references don't seem to be aware of that.

The information in the following entry from the Sanseido Daijirin dictionary is 
similar to that in other large Japanese dictionaries.

$B;0>JF2(B $BBg<-NS(B

http://www.weblio.jp/content/$B798~1G2h(B

$B!Z798~1G2h![(B
$B!L%I%$%D8l(B Tendenzfilm$B$NLu!M(B1920$BG/Be8eH>$N@$3&BgIT674|$rCf?4$K!">&6H1G2h$NCf(B
$B$G<R2q$NL7=b$rAJ$($kFbMF$N%W%m%l%?%j%"1G2h!#F|K\$G$NBeI=:n$ONkLZ=E5H!V2?$,H`=w(B
$B$r$5$&$5$;$?$+!W$J$I!#(B

[Free Translation]

Keikou eiga is a Japanese translation of the German term "Tendenzfilm." 

Keikoueiga were proletarian films (puroretaria eiga),  made mainly during the 
time of the Great Worldwide Depression in the latter half of the 1920s. They 
were commercially made films whose content was critical of the contradictions 
in society. A typical Japanese film of this type was Suzuki Yoshishige's "Nani ga 
kano jo o sou saseta ka."


There's also an interesting brief online piece from 2007 in Japanese on 
"Mizoguchi Kenji and His Times (2) [Expressionism and Keikou eiga]," 
referencing a few films by Mizoguchi and others in Japan and Europe, but the 
latest film is from 1935.
http://www.planetplusone.com/memberonly/2_1.html  

I hope these snippets may be help a little. 

Michael McCaskey
Georgetown University