[KineJapan] Query on hippopotamus movies

[Anne McKnight]

Hi everyone, and happy almost new year~

I have a query about a specific film I have read about a couple of times—yet it is never attributed a name, director, or even year. My best guess is Taisho 12. 

One account says it is a movie about “hippopotamus hunting,” and mentions the commentary by Tokugawa Musei, whereas the other just focuses on how the hippo can be accessed better on the screen as a phenomenology project, mentioning no bench or even story. The first account (the more entertainment-oriented one) remarks that people laughed at various parts of the film, coaxed by the commentary, where the other (the more “critical” one) doesn’t mention the audience at all. Both critics mention Africa, hippos, hippo splashing behavior, around the same time…so I am pretty sure they are the same film. They just show very different attitudes about how to use photo-realism to understand “nature.” 

I am curious if anyone else has seen references to this movie, or even the movie itself. No idea where it comes from, but in the memoir I am reading, the author typically mentions if it is an Ufa film, so it might not be Ufa. And if it is a dramaturged “documentary,” at least it is more real than, say, Baboona (1935), which I have also seen referenced as a scientific (科学) film.

Thanks for any help or wild guesses!

Anne


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