[KineJapan] Kawashima and metareferences

[Alo Jõekalda]

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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20130828/2fec67c8/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan