more Hara Setsuko

[faith]

Thanks, Dick, for your exhaustive summary of the latest Shincho 45 film clip.  Personally I found it fascinating to study the location camerawork, character stereotypes and acting schtick of an authentic "B" film from that far back and I am indebted to Mr Yasui for giving me the chance to do so.  Guess we all have our own whimsical ideas of what is and is not "worthy."
FB
--- On Sun, 2011/4/24, Dick Stegewerns <dick.stegewerns at xs4all.nl> wrote:



Dear all,

For those of you who cannot get enough of glimpses of the young Hara Setsuko, the May edition of Shincho 45 treats us to a DVD with the oldest remaining moving images of the actress. These come to us through the kind service of Osaka Planet Plus One's Yasui-san in the form of 25 or so minutes of 'Tamashii wo Nagero', the 1935 Nikkatsu Tamagawa film directed by Taguchi Satoshi (most known for his warfilm 'Shogun to Sanbo to Hei' and his later documentary work) and Hara's third film. I am afraid the quality of the remaining middle part of the film is not terribly good, but this part does feature the 15 year-old Hara in school uniform, swimsuit and yukata, which seems to be the biggest selling point of both the film and this issue of Shincho 1945. The film itself is hardly more than a mass product. It is the regular story of a rural highschool team making it to Koshien through many hardships, although it involves some extraordinary elements such as the
 team's pitcher (Hara features as his younger sister) being assaulted by the rival team and eventually dying of his injuries. It is also interesting to see that in this 'Fifteen Years War' wartime production the American-imported sports of baseball is characterised as a true spiritual 'way' (baseball-do) on the same level as Japan's various martial arts (budo) and that fun is being made of a stubborn retired officer. However most important is that the film, in sharp contrast to the more realistic 'Seimei no Kan' (Uchida Tomu, 1936) presented as a supplement to the March issue of Shincho 45, features various close-up shots of the young actress. If your definition of paradise is that the ball you have thrown is returned to you by a young, smiling Hara Setsuko in yukata, this film was made for you. Otherwise I would invest your time and money on more worthy things.

By the way, the same publishing house treats the readers of its main literary magazine Shincho to a CD of the 1962 radio play of Tanizaki Junichiro's 'Futen Rojin Nikki', featuring the writer himself in the leading main role. Plenty indirect connections to film, so I guess it is OK to mention. One only wonders if nowadays magazines only can be sold by adding DVDs or CDs.

Regards,

Dick Stegewerns
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20110424/c3490141/attachment.html