[KineJapan] Kawashima and metareferences

[Mark Roberts]

It might be worth adding that "Japanse meesters van de B-film" was edited by Hasumi as a project of the 20th edition of the Film Festival Rotterdam. 

My guess is that most of these screenings in Europe and North America were sourced by the Japan Foundation, which has perhaps ten films by Kawashima with English subtitles.

After Rotterdam, the next significant retrospective in Europe was possibly in 2003 at the Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris:

http://mcjp.fr/francais/cinema/archives-101/yuzo-kawashima-le-vagabond-de-l

Since the Japanese rights holders evidently have zero interest in overseas distribution, it doesn't surprise me that it took fifty years to see Kawashima on DVD with subtitles.


Mark Roberts

Research Fellow, UTCP
http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/data/mark_roberts/index_en.php


On Aug 28, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Frederick Veith wrote:

> The film in the MoMA series was Bakumatsu taiyo-den, or as they called it: Not Long After Leaving Shinagawa. The Rotterdam publication only gives detailed credits for four films, which suggests to me that they were the only ones which screened at the festival: Suzaki Paradise, Bakumatsu taiyo-den, Onna wa nido umareru, and Shitoyakana kemono. Apart from these four, the only other film which seems to have screened in the US recently is the other Daiei film, Gan no tera. But believe it or not, some of Kawashima's Toho films were shown in the US at the time of their original release. Aobeka monogatari was even reviewed in the New York Times in 1964 by Bosley Crowther.
> 
> Fred.
> 
> On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 7:01 PM, Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi, Alo,
> This doesn't exactly put Kawashima in the West very far back, but my notes say he figured in a program at New York MoMA in 2005, called 'Early Autumn: Masters of Japanese cinema from the NFC, Tokyo'. I can't lay my hands on it to say which film.  Galbraith's  'Japanese filmography' is a good place to look for Western releases before that.  But there's also the 1991 book published by Rotterdam Film Festival, 'KAWASHIMA Yúzó & MORI Issei: Japanse meesters van de B-film ~ Japanese Kings of the Bs', which strongly suggests to me that they showed some of his films.  I bought my copy at the Amsterdam 'Eye' centre last summer.
>  
> I don't recall metareferencing in the couple of Kawashima films I've seen, but as far as the Marx brothers and Enoken are concerned, they both have a history in vaudeville and radio comedy, in both of which the fourth wall is only honoured in the breach.  I read Enoken's to-camera squeak, at the beginning of Enoken no seishun suikoden as referencing his radio signature for a large part of his audience that might, up to that point, have only known him in that medium.
>  
> Roger
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael Raine
> To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum
> Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 10:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Kawashima and metareferences
> 
> Hello Alo,
> 
> In terms of direct address, Enoken no seishun suikoden is probably the most obvious. I remember a seemingly complicit look in one of the Yotamono films (Jogakusei to yotamono?) too...
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 5:43 PM, Alo Jõekalda <alojoekalda at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear KineJapaners,
> 
> I've been writing something on early Kawashima Yuzo recently, and have run into a couple of issues that I'm hoping some of you can help to straighten out.
> 
> First, I'd be interested to know if the metareferencing and overtly self-conscious narration that one begins to see in the Kawashima of late 1940s and Ichikawa of early 1950s was something entirely new in Japan. In Hollywood, breaking the fourth wall has hardly been an issue ever since the Marx Brothers or so, but what about the Japanese pre-war? There was, of course, a number of films that referenced or parodied both foreign and local product -- the Japanese King Kongs, for instance, have been brought up here before, as has been Yamamoto Kikuo's book, which lists a number of citational titles. But does anyone know if any of these or other older films actually addressed the audience in the literal sense?
> 
> Also, I''ve been wondering about Kawashima's availability overseas, and whether Eureka's recent release of Bakumatsu taiyo-den really set a historical precedent. Is anyone aware of any other foreign release of a Kawashima film on any home video format? It's hard to believe it actually took them fifty years. As for international screenings, I believe a few films have been shown at Toronto and FILMeX, and Taiyo-den and Susaki paradaisu have, of course, been all over the place since last year's Nikkatsu centennial. Anything else of note?
> 
> Thanks in advance and all the best,
> Alo
> 
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20130828/b6b8278f/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan