[KineJapan] Daido Eiga

[Alexander Jacoby]

Hi Jasper,

You obviously have the context of what you've been researching, which I
don't, so forgive me for asking... but are you absolutely sure it's Kyoto-
(or even-Japan)-based? The first two characters read in Chinese are Datong,
a city in Shanxi Prefecture (a few hours' drive west of Beijing).

Chinese film pioneer Zhang Shichuan (1889-1953 or 1890-1954, depending on
the source consulted) is said in the Historical Dictionary of Chinese
Cinema to have worked for a Shanghai-based company called Datong Film
Company late in his career, after WWII. This was a problematic moment in
his career; he had worked in wartime Shanghai for a Japanese-controlled
studio and courted accusations of treason after the city was liberated,
although he was never indicted.

I found quite a few references online to a 大同影片公司 and then realised it does
have an English language Wikipedia entry suggesting that it started making
films in 1948:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datong_Film_Company

Although that entry claims it shut down in 1953, there seems also to have
been a 大同影業公司 active in Taiwan from the 1950s. See

http://hkmdb.com/db/companies/view.mhtml?id=2718

which includes links to several posters where the name is visible.

Searching "Datong Eiga" in kanji, within quotation marks, also brings up a
reference on a Japanese-language website to the same Chinese studio.

Best,


ALEX






On Wed, 28 Apr 2021 at 16:10, Jasper Sharp via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> I have a quick question for those of you who might know a little about
> Kyoto film history. Does anyone know of a film company called Daido Eiga
> (大同映画) that was around circa 1946/47? The name came up in something I'm
> researching, and it seems to be a thing, but I can't find anything of
> substance about it on the internet.
> Thanks for your help.
> best
> Jasper
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