Question from a Researcher in Berlin (1937 Die Tochter des Samurai/Atarashiki

[Michael Kerpan]

> Hara and Hayakawa spoke their own lines in German, I believe. 

I would say Hara mostly _whispered_ her lines in German. ;~}

Also Mansaku Itami was co-director for this project (apparently he directed the scenes involving domestic Japanese life).

MEK

--- On Tue, 1/18/11, mccaskem at georgetown.edu <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> wrote:

> From: mccaskem at georgetown.edu <mccaskem at georgetown.edu>
> Subject: Re: Question from a Researcher in Berlin (1937 Die Tochter des Samurai/Atarashiki
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 5:44 PM
> Dear Friederike Felbeck &
> Katherine Mezur,
> 
> If you are looking for the oldest one on film, it's likely
> to be
> 
> Atarashiki tsuchi/Die Tochter des Samurai 1937
> 
> It was directed by Arnold Fanck. Fanck made very realistic
> mountain-climbing 
> movies, etc. Some starring Leni Riefenstahl, whom Fanck
> "discovered," and who 
> became a director perhaps partly inspired by him.
> 
> Fanck seems basically to have been a fairly nice person. He
> did not capitalize on 
> "NS Film" very much, and was more successful before 1933
> than he ever was 
> afterward. LR probably used her influence, and helped him
> get this 1937 film 
> project. 
> 
> It was billed as an international film. It was Hara
> Setsuko's first big role in film. 
> Sessue Hayakawa was in  it, though not in a leading
> part. A Japanese actor 
> named Kosugi Isamu played in  a sort of romantic
> triangle with Hara Setsuko and 
> Ruth Eweler. Eweler was the German lead actress. Like
> Fanck, she did not thrive, 
> and she died in her early 30s, probably of illness, a
> couple of years after WWII. 
> Kosugi Isamu had a fairly long film career, but this 1937
> film may have been the 
> peak for him.
> 
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028028/combined
> 
> The YouTube extract below will provide a very good idea of
> the film. Hara and 
> Hayakawa spoke their own lines in German, I believe. There
> is also a version with 
> a fully Japanese sound track.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idpN4wBgpSc
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Michael McCaskey
> Georgetown Univ.
> 
> 
> 
>