[KineJapan] 1931 amateur film by TAKEUCHI Kichinosuke this Saturday

Sat Nov 5 05:55:37 EDT 2022

Dear Roger,

I am glad to hear you enjoyed the film, and thank you very much for an
additional inquiry. Actually, I have not been able to find the correct
Japanese title of this film. One source I found (a Japanese magazine from
1936) introduces the film as *Imōto* (little sister), and another source (a
Japanese book on small gauge film in 1941) describes it as *Ane* (big
sister). (By watching the film, *Ane* seems to be more relevant) This is my
guess, but one possibility may be that Takeuchi created this film for
international audiences and festivals in mind from the beginning by putting
the English title and intertitles. I am not sure if Takeuchi ever made its
Japanese version, since I have not found any evidence of it in coterie
magazines or books, nor do know of the print of the Japanese version having
survived.

Noriko

On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 9:43 PM Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Thank you, Noriko, for such a generous and quick response ! I appreciate
> all the work you have done on this.
>
> Yes, I can see it’s a beautiful, well-crafted film.
>
> The preserved film is shorn of its Japanese title and credits, so I would
> be very much in the dark without your help.
>
> Do you have the original title ? - 姉弟 ?
>
> I’ll look forward to viewing the others.
>
> Roger
>
>
> On Friday, 4 November 2022 at 11:10:18 GMT, Noriko Morisue <
> noriko.morisue at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Roger,
>
> Thank you so much for your interest in this topic and for your question.
>
> I am actually part of the project with Keith Johnston on the IAC World
> Tour, and the description on Takeuchi (武内 吉之助) that you have quoted in your
> email is something that I wrote up.
>
> My knowledge may not be up to date since I have not been able to work much
> on the topic since I finished my thesis a few years ago, but when I was
> working on my diss, there was no comprehensive online resource on Japanese
> amateur films or filmmakers as far as I was aware of (except for the
> Amateur Movie Database you are referring to, although this website does not
> include much information in the Japanese context). You may be able to find
> some information in the Digital Collection of the National Diet Library,
> but I do not think you can find anything that will give you a comprehensive
> framework of this subject. Regarding the IAC World Tour in Japan, unlike
> what is described in the Amateur Cinematographer article you have quoted, I
> was able to find evidence of only one screening that took place in Japan
> (at the hall of Konishiroku’s head office in Tokyo on January 20, 1938).
>
> East Anglian Film Archive has made available the works of three Japanese
> amateur filmmakers from the 1930s (Takeuchi, Okamoto Tatsuichi, and
> Tsukamoto Koji), all of which are part of the IAC Film Collection.
>
>
> https://eafa.org.uk/search/?q=Takeuchi&titleDateFrom=1890-01-01&titleDateTo=2022-12-30&perorg=&agentActivity=&featured=&workType=&descriptionType=&sound=&colourType=&searchSort=relevance_desc
>
> The Collection also includes a film, Tambo, by American filmmaker Fred
> Ells who was based in Japan from the mid 1920s through 1940, but somehow
> the web video seems unavailable for his film.
>
> Noriko
>
> On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 9:32 AM Roger Macy via KineJapan <
> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>
> A heads-up and a question, please.
>
> This weekend, in London at the Cinema Museum, there’s a silent film
> weekend
> <http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2022/kennington-bioscope-sixth-silent-film-weekend-saturday-5-november/>.
> On Saturday, at 13.50, there’s a programme of amateur films that recreates
> the *The Institute of Amateur Photographers’ Award-Winners’ Film
> Programme of 1935-39,* and includes a film, *Sister and Brother*, 1931 by
> TAKEUCHI Kichinosuke from the Amateur Movie Maker Contest of 1932.
>
> What I have gleaned so far from Keith Johnston of the research project at
> U. of East Anglia is:-
>
> ·         There’s a brief bio via the Amateur Movie Database:
> https://www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/filmmaker/kichi-takeuchi)
>
> ·         Report on *Sister *as part of IAC World Tour programme: ‘The
> first projection of the World Tour films, sponsored by the Institute of Amateur
> Cinematographers, London, to be held in the Far East was given tonight
> before three hundred members of the Sakura Kogata Eigo Kyokai (Cherry
> Amateur Movie Society). Winners in the 1934 contest of the Institute, these
> films have progressed through Europe and the Middle East. Veterans of
> numerous projections, the films are yet in excellent condition. Japanese
> amateurs were particularly appreciative of “Sister,” produced by *K.
> Takeuchi* of Kyoto, and  ...  Further projections are planned in Nagoya,
> Osaka, Kyoto, and possibly Yokohama, after which the films will be sent
> to Australia.’ (‘Notes of the Movie Clubs’ *American Cinematographer* v19
> n1, March 1938, p.121)
>
> ·         Years of birth / death are currently unknown
>
> ·         He owned a kimono shop in Kyoto
>
> ·         When Kodak Japan Limited established the Nippon 8 miri Kyōkai
> (8mm Film Association) in June 1934, Takeuchi served as one of the board
> members
>
> ·         He was also a board member of the Nippon 8 miri Eiga Renmei
> (8mm Film League) established in 1938
>
> ·         Takeuchi published a number of writings in amateur film
> magazines published locally in the Kansai region in the 1930s (which
> included cities such as Kyoto and Osaka.) The names of these magazines
> are *Bebī kinema *(Baby Kinema) and *Patē kinema* (Pathe Kinema), and the
> topics of his writings include the "theory and practice of small-gauge
> filmmaking for educating children" (that appeared in several issues of the *Patē
> kinema* magazine in 1932 and 19333) and a screenplay for a small-gauge
> production, titled *Goldfish* (April 1933 in *Patē kinema*)
>
> ·         Some of these publications included Takeuchi in a debate about
> the use of sequences from other people’s films in new works, whether
> editing was enough to create originality (following some of Pudovkin’s
> ideas) or if a film had to be a completely new creation
>
> ·         Some writings on amateur film in Japan include Noriko Morisue
> (she wrote her PhD at Yale on this topic) and Nada Hisashi, ‘The Little
> Cinema Movement in the 1920s and the Introduction of Avant-Garde Cinema in
> Japan’, *Japan Society of Image Arts and Society* vol.3 (1994): 39-68.
>
> I don’t have immediate access to these references, and none of that
> definitively gives me Takeuchi’s Japanese spelling, so I’m just giving what
> I have, before the screening.
>
> The questions are, is there any online resource on Japanese amateur
> filmmakers, and can anyone (Noriko Morisue?) tell me more, please.
>
> Roger
>
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