earliest translation of Pudovkin in Japan?

Nornes, Markus amnornes at umich.edu
Sun May 15 21:26:56 EDT 2011


This is an opportune time to invite Weihong and Chika and everyone else interested in theory in East Asian cinema to Ann Arbor in September 2012.

Chris Berry and I are organizing a conference on this topic as part of the Permanent Seminar on the History of Film Theory.

We will be sending out a precise date soon, along with a call for papers, but it will probably be the weekend of the 15th.

Mark your calendars and start thinking about a topic. It's going to be a fantastic conference!

Markus



On May 16, 2011, at 9:17 AM, "Chika Kinoshita" <kinotchka at gmail.com<mailto:kinotchka at gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi Weihong,

Yes, this is a fascinating topic! And I was obsessed with it for a while.

V. I. Pudovkin's Film Technique and Film Acting initially suffered from an awkward translation,* but was eventually put into lucid prose by Sasaki Norio and published as a book from Ôraisha in February 1930.** The Pudovkin book, entitled in Japanese Eiga kantoku to eiga kyakuhon ron (Study on Film Direction and Screenwriting), included Timoshenko’s The Art of the Cinema as an appendix, following the German edition’s format. Thus, it was in February 1930 that the basic knowledge of Soviet montage theory became accessible to the general reading public who did not necessarily follow every issue of highly specialized film journals like Kinema junpô and Eiga hyôron.

*Hatano Mitsuo translated Pudovkin’s “Introduction to the German Edition” and “Part 1 Scenario” of the first chapter (The Film Scenario and Its Theory) from the German translation of Film Technique and Film Acting, serializing it from January 1929 to July 1929 in the monthly Eiga hyôron. Hatano’s translation was, however, not serviceable, as he could not get the key conceptual terms and important film titles (e.g., Intolerance) right.

**Sasaki, also relying on the German translation, translated what amounts to Chapters 1 and 2 of the English version to which I have access. V. Pudovkin, Eiga kantoku to eiga kyakuhon ron, trans. Sasaki Norio (Tokyo: Ôrai Sha, 1930); V. I. Pudovkin, Film Technique and Film Acting, trans. and ed. Ivor Montagu, memorial ed. (London: Vision, 1958).

I'm looking at the Sasaki translation right now. It does include Pudovkin's preface together with the special prefaces to the Japanese version written by the luminaries like Murata Minoru (director), Kitamura Komatsu (screenwriter), and Ushihara Kiyohiko (director).

Hope it helps. I can't wait to read your stuff on montage in Chinese film culture in the 1930s.

Best,

Chika


On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 9:54 AM, Aaron Gerow <<mailto:aaron.gerow at yale.edu>aaron.gerow at yale.edu<mailto:aaron.gerow at yale.edu>> wrote:
According to the Tsuji Kyohei bibliography, the German edition of Pudovkin's Filmregie und Filmmanuskript was published in Japanese translation in 1930. A translation of the English edition of Film Technique (using the 1933 new edition) was published in 1936. Pudovkin was one of the most cited Soviet theorists/filmmakers in the prewar.

Of course translations of Soviet montage theory appeared in magazines from the late 1920s, including I believe excerpts of Pudovkin. Yamamoto Kikuo's book lists some of them, but my copy is at the office right now.

Aaron

On May 15, 2011, at 3:29 PM, Weihong Bao wrote:

Dear list members,
I am trying to find out information whether Pudovkin's Film Technique was translated into Japanese and if so, when?

Thank you very much for your response.

best wishes,
Weihong Bao
Columbia University


Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Associate Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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---------
Chika Kinoshita
Assistant Professor of Film Studies
Shizuoka University of Art and Culture
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Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka 430-8533
Japan
Phone: +81-53-457-6192
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