[KineJapan] Oni-azami, 1927 in the west

[Roger Macy]

A completely different point arising from myreport of Il Cinema Ritrovato which also went up this month: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2023/festival-reports/magnetizing-and-still-putting-on-weight-the-37th-il-cinema-ritrovato/

The retrospective on KinugasaTeinosuke included some familiar films and others hitherto inaccessible in theWest. Also shown was the fairly recently rediscovered final reel of 鬼あざみ Oni-azami of 1927, in excellent condition, found at the Jugoslovenskakinoteka in Belgrade. It showed the balletic Hasegawa Kazuo, then known as HayashiChōjirō, in the flower of his youth, but I have never seen mention before ofthis film getting to the West. It was immediately apparent that the intertitleswere not Serbian but in Roman orthography, and I’m told the language wasdistinctly Croatian. Although I was referred by the NFAJ, I’ve still not heardback from Jugoslovenska kinoteka. It’s likely the film got to Belgrade in a centralizing move in the50s, strangely like the undocumented accession of Kaguya-hime into theBFI at this period.

I hope eventually todig further into the film’s history but would happily defer to, or join anyoneplaced to discover more ...

Roger
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