the year 1927 || the foundation of modernism: japanese cinema in the year 1927

The Foundation of Modernism: Japanese Cinema in the Year 1927Author(s): Hiroshi KomatsuSource: Film History, Vol. 17, No. 2/3, The Year 1927 (2005), pp. 363-375Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3815601 .

Accessed: 21/09/2013 05:47

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Film History.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 131.170.6.51 on Sat, 21 Sep 2013 05:47:01 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupress

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3815601?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Film History, Volume 17, pp. 363-375, 2005. Copyright © John Libbey Publishing ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America

The Foundation of

Modernism: Japanese Cinema in the Year 1927

Hiroshi Komatsu

T he Great Kanto Earthquake of 1 September 1923 created a definitive break in the history of Japanese silent cinema. There is a profound difference in content and form in the cinema

before and after the earthquake. Although some directors like Norimasa Kaeriyama and Yoshiro Edamasa had tried to make Japanese cinema con- form to an Occidental form of film structure and content in the late teens, there was still a strong general resistance to this modernisation of Japanese cinema. The fundamental change was caused by the earthquake. It destroyed Tokyo not only materially but also culturally and ideologically. And it gave Tokyo the opportunity to reconstruct itself. It was the beginning of the modernist trend that would flourish in the latter half of the twenties and the early thirties in the reborn metropolis of Tokyo. This rather abrupt change has been characterized as the assimilation of cultural institutions that had already been seen clearly during the Meiji Restoration. The idea promoted by the Pure Motion Picture Drama Movement in the late teens was substantially realized by the unexpected disas- ter. Thus the Great Kanto Earthquake provided the impetus for Japanese cinema to assimilate foreign cinema. Foreign cinema here does not necessarily mean American cinema. In other words, Japanese silent cinema after 1924 did not advance directly toward imitating Hollywood cinema. What happened, then, when Japanese cinema tried to assimilate foreign cinema? The result of this assimilation could be seen in the films and in the situation of the cinema in the year 1927. The transformation of Japanese cinema after the earthquake is clearly revealed there.

More than three years had passed since the earthquake. Japanese cinema had reached its high point as the art of silence, as elsewhere in the world's

major film-producing countries. The menacing shadow of the future form called sound cinema surely existed, but most people never imagined that it would change the entire film world. On the contrary, greater possibilities for cinema as the art of silence were actively considered and discussed in theoreti- cal writings. The cinema was the most popular mass entertainment in Japan in 1927, and at the same time few people doubted any more that it was an art form.

On 25 December 1926, Yoshihito, the Taisho Emperor, died and the Showa era began. The first year of Showa lasted only six days, until 31 Decem- ber 1926. Therefore 1927, technically the second year of the Showa era, was effectively its first year. During the last half of 1926, the transition between the old and the new could be seen clearly. The world's first complete edition of the works of Marx and Engels was translated and published in Japan. Young intellectuals were stimulated by this new ideology, and at the same time they eagerly absorbed the latest art and culture. In September 1926 two obituaries and a film industry item were published on the same page of the film magazine Kinema Jumpo that symbolized the transition from the old to the new in this period. The obituaries marked the deaths of Kisaburo Kurihara and Matsunoske Onoe, while the film industry reported that the star Tsumasaburo

Hiroshi Komatsu is Professor of Film History at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. A specialist in silent cinema, he has worked on the restoration of European silent films of the teens for the National Film Center in Tokyo. He is currently writing a book on Carl Th. Dreyer. Correspondence: c/o Faculty of Literature, Waseda University, 1-24-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162- 8644 Japan.



Hliroshi Komatsu

Bando had signed a contract with the American studio Universal Pictures.1

Kisaburo Kurihara had worked under Thomas H. Ince in the United States and then returned to Japan where he began to produce Americanized Japanese films in the late teens. He was one of the earliest artists who tried to reform Japanese cinema in both form and content. But he belonged funda- mentally to the older era of filmmaking, and he could not follow the radical changes in Japanese cinema after the 1923 earthquake. By 1926 Kurihara, who directed Japanese films between 1918 and 1923, had been nearly forgotten as a film director. The premature death of this reformer (he was 41 years old when he died) had a symbolic meaning in this period when Japanese cinema no longer needed reform.

Matsunosuke Onoe was, needless to say, the superstar of Japanese cinema in the early period. He had appeared in many Old School films since 1909. In the late teens he was the object of the reformers' criticism. However, his status as a star never de- clined until his death. Naturally, even his films were obliged to change after the earthquake. The Old School film disappeared, to be reborn in 1924 as Jidai-geki (period drama). New stars such as Tsu- masaburo Bando created a completely innovative form of Jidai-geki. Matsunosuke's style was out- dated in the post-earthquake cinema. Although his personal popularity was still high and he had developed a more realistic manner of performance, by the time of his death in 1926 his films had been super- ceded. His death cut off Japanese period drama completely from the form of the Old School. Mat- sunosuke Onoe's star persona was based on the technique of Kabuki theatre in a strict sense. It was very different from that of Tsumasaburo Bando, who gained popularity by expressing human passion quite realistically. Tsumasaburo Bando founded his own independent company in 1925 and started to produce star vehicles in which he played the leading role.

Silent cinema at its high point Kinema Jumpo reported on the situation of the cinema in 1927 under the rubric 'The Amazing Strength of the Cinema'.

Motion picture attendance in Tokyo during the last year reached 15,193,324. Currently there are 82 motion picture theaters in Tokyo. This

represents approximately a 70 per cent increase compared to 48 theaters in 1918. Audi- ences are also increasing year by year:

1917 9,252,521 1918 7,757,583 1926 15,193,324

The total paying audience in the whole country last year was 157,385,449, with a daily average of 431,193. Based on the national population, this number indicates that the average person watched 2.6 films a year. At an admission charge of 35 sen, the total revenue would have been 52,800,000 yen. According to a specialist's research, the actual revenue seemed to be more than 80,000,000 yen.2

Film historian Junichiro Tanaka wrote about the year 1927 as follows: 'Chronologically speaking, 1927 was the year when Japanese cinema made rapid progress. Researchers must concentrate on this year and try to study the films produced by each company. Five years had passed since the artistic awakening of Japanese cinema. The pure cineastes finally appeared in this period.'3

Tanaka named Heinosuke Gosho as one of the representatives of such 'pure cineastes'. Indeed, the auteurist view of the cinema was gradually formed in cinema journalism after the earthquake. Monographic studies were devoted not only to Euro- pean and American directors, but also to some Japa- nese directors. In 1927 the monthly film magazine Eiga Hyoron published special issues on Minoru Murata and Kyohiko Ushihara (March and December respectively), along with monographic studies of Charles Chaplin, Jacques Feyder, Ernst Lubitsch and F.W. Murnau. This was the period when the cinema became generally regarded as an art.

In March 1927 Yoshio Yanai, head of the film censorship section of the Ministry of the Interior, discussed 'three perspectives on the cinema':

First, cinema can be seen in comparison with art and literature. Many critics are commenting on film from an aesthetic viewpoint. Consider- ing films as works of art has been necessary to chart the progress of cinema until now. It has stimulated progress in film production.

Second, one must not judge the cinema from the artistic viewpoint alone. The cinema de- pends on technology. It uses scientific means,

364



The Foundation of Modernism: Japanese Cinema in the Year 1927

for example, the camera, developing prints, staging, lighting, etc. All these depend on physics and science. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the cinema as the result of scientific research. Commentaries and studies on this point are still scarce. Technology must be used effectively, with the aid of scientific evalu- ation and a research policy. Although it is never the ultimate objective, science cannot be overlooked as part of understanding the specificity of cinema. Traditional film art should be advanced by using the power of science.

Finally, cinema is a business. We had completely ignored this perspective because we had never tried to escape the boundaries of the showman's former territory. Quite recently, at last, we began to think about film production as an industry. It requires enormous time and capital. The economic laws of this business are the opposite of an art work. A good movie cannot be made without sufficient financing. Capital must be used diversely and efficiently. A systematic industry must be organized as well. The present companies are not interested in studying this aspect of the cinema. People working there should study and try to improve the current situation. But at the same time, new men of economics and science from outside the industry are welcome to enter and I want them to establish the foundation for this age of the cinema.4

Art, science and economics: when seen from these three perspectives, Yanai believed that Japanese cinema had not developed sufficiently in scientific/technological and economic terms.

If science and economics are so closely linked in the cinema, the reason for the delay in introducing sound film after 1930 in Japan can be understood as the result of the fragility of the economic foundations of Japanese film companies. According to this view, the technological requirements for making sound films could not be adopted immediately because of economic weakness. That was true in a sense, but interest in sound film certainly existed in Japan. Sound and voices had always existed in every Japa- nese motion picture theater from the beginning. Moreover, a Japanese critic boastfully declared that the first talking feature film was made in Japan in 1927. We will return to this matter later.

8b · a " , ':ra:· ··d :,;··

·,: ,aari: "'' -$ , ; · I ..'... · $i· r. i

,, Brl a: ······:·;·;

ill :.··: ·;. ''ii·

"·: '1*::·

The cinema pervaded people's lives in 1927, the apex of the period of silent cinema. Numerous film journals ranged from highbrow periodicals for film criticism and theory to popular fan magazines. More than 20 periodicals were published every month. Showy advertisements for films crowded the pages of newspapers. Portraits and postcards of the stars sold extremely well. Many theaters published their own flyers every week. According to Yanai, about 130,000 reels of film were circulating in the market at that time, and about 65 per cent of them were Japanese. The number of film titles was almost equally divided between Japanese and foreign films. But 20 to 25 copies were made of a popular Japa- nese film. Even if it was not so popular, at least seven to eight copies were made. As foreign films were usually not copied in Japan, Japanese films over- whelmingly dominated the market. Aside from some short comedies, films with less than five reels were no longer produced by 1927, including so-called program pictures, and some special films exceeded 15 reels. Such Japanese films, which ran more than three hours, were sometimes criticized for their length, as one critic stated ironically at that time:

Film companies intoxicated by the call of Japanese cinema's golden age tried to make everything big in order to increase popularity. Accordingly, recent Japanese films tend to have a lot of reels. The producers might think that increasing the number of reels makes a super-production. It is absurd that an ordinary feature film now uses as many reels as an old-fashioned serial.5

Fig. 1. Jihi Shincho (Merciful Bird, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Nikkatsu). [Illustrations reproduced from contemporary Japanese journals.]

365



Hiroshi Komatsu

.*.. .. . ....... *::. : . ". ' ,:!: i. .. t = ....: i

\ rd 5>_;

Apart from serials, more than 20 Japanese films made in 1927 exceeded ten reels. Some of the most important directors made these long films, such as Yutaka Abe's Kare Wo Meguru Gonin No Onna (He and Five Women, Nikkatsu, 14 reels), Kyohiko Ushihara's Showa Jidai (Showa Age, Sho- chiku, 12 reels), Minoru Murata's Tsubaki Hime (Camille, Nikkatsu, 12 reels), Buntaro Futagawa's Akuma No Hoshi No Motoni (Under Devil's Star, Makino, 12 reels), Yoshinobu Ikeda's Shinju Fujin (Mrs. Pearl, Shochiku, 17 reels) and Kenji Mi- zoguchi's Jihi Shincho (Merciful Bird, Nikkatsu, 13 reels).

Universal's new initiative Three American film companies were in Japan before the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923: Universal, Paramount and United Artists. After the earthquake, Fox and First National founded Japa- nese branch offices, and in 1927 these five companies and the newly-founded Columbia branch office were releasing American films in Japan. The films of other American studios were imported by various Japanese companies: FBO films were imported by Shochiku and Star Film, Vitagraph by Shochiku, Warners by Taiyo Shoko in Kobe, and MGM films were imported by Yamani Yoko. American film occu- pied a large share of the market in Japan, however Japanese films were rarely exported abroad. After the mid-twenties, only a few had been exported to Europe, and those films did not have an important influence there. It is true that far more Japanese films were exported to the Unites States because Japa- nese people were living there. But those films were

rarely seen by the American people, except for Japa- nese-Americans. In this sense, Josef von Sternberg was an exceptional man. He was interested in Japa- nese films and frequented a motion picture theater in Los Angeles' Japan-town in the twenties. Accord- ing to Kyohiko Ushihara, Sternberg attended Fujikan, a Japanese movie theater there, nearly every week. He even remembered how many people Tsumas- aburo killed with his sword.6

Tsumasaburo Bando (1901-1953) was an extremely popular star of Jidai-geki film. People called him Bantsuma. As mentioned above, Bando signed a contract in September 1926 that his company would make films for Universal. Universal did not need Japanese films for the American market, but rather for the Japanese market. L. Prouse Knox, head of Universal's Japanese operations, had been interested in the popularity of domestic cinema in Japan since the mid-twenties. He wanted attractive Japanese films to add to the programs of Universal films shown in Japan. Tsumasaburo Bando had founded his own independent company in 1925 and built a film studio in Uzumasa, Kyoto in 1926. Sho- chiku controlled the rights to release all the films that Bando starred in, which meant that he could not star in the films his company made for Universal. To guarantee the quality of those films, Ryosuke Ta- chibana, who managed Bantsuma Productions, made sure that Universal provided superior technology, staff and equipment. Above all, Tachibana was interested in Universal's capital.

According to Mr.Tachibana's statement, they will receive all the materials they need for making films from Universal including cameras, lights, film developing equipment, equipment for trick photography, etc. They will be supplied with about $200,000 total. They will invite three or four technical experts in six month shifts to use this equipment and to instruct the staff in the studio. And each year they will select one actor and actress as well as a member of the technical staff in the Uzu- masa studio and send them to Universal City to observe the studio's operations. When needed, they can work in Universal's films in America. The films made by the Uzumasa studio will be released through Universal's branches throughout the world. This is a huge project aimed at opening the Japanese film market to the world.7

Fig. 2. Tsumasaburo

Bando (center) and L. Prouse

Knox (right) signing the

contract between Bantsuma

Productions and Universal.

A

366




Technical and economic resources lacking in Japanese cinema would be supplied by Universal. That was Tachibana's goal. And his ambition was to send Japanese films into the international market. But at the same time, Universal was paying attention to the importance of the Japanese market. It is not clear to what extent Carl Laemmle recognized the importance of Japanese cinema, but L. Prouse Knox had informed him about Tsumasaburo Bando's popularity. Laemmle sent the following message to Japanese theater owners:

I was very pleased to send a studio manager, a head technician, a director of photography and a laboratory director from the United States last week. These people will be happy to remain in Japan as long as they are needed and take charge of their special fields. To make the staff of Bantsuma Tachibana Univer- sal as knowledgeable as the world's best film technicians, I will also send some of our other specialists. At the same time, it was my privi- lege to ship over a great deal of the latest equipment. I am always ready to meet the needs for the technical facilities to make Japa- nese cinema advance to be the best in the world.8

For an independent company founded by an actor, it must have been a tremendous boost to Bando's company to receive this kind of support from a major American studio. On 4 October 1926, four people sent by Universal arrived in Yokohama: studio manager Jay Marchant, laboratory director Alfred Gosden, director of photographer Harold Smith and electrician Al Boeckmann. Along with them came equipment: six Bell and Howell cameras, two generators for outdoor photography and eighty lights of various types.9

In order to begin releasing films in January 1927, the newly founded Bantsuma Tachibana Uni- versal soon began production. Following the traditional method of Japanese filmmaking, Gendai-geki (modern drama) and Jidai-geki were produced in separate units. The company's first film was Kirishi- tan Ocho (Ocho, A Christian), released on 28 January 1927 on the program supporting the French super- production Michel Strogoff (1926), which had been re-edited by American Universal. Kirishitan Ocho was an ambitious work written and directed by Norio Yamakami. Its smart use of tracking shots and acro- batic movements by the actress Nobuko Satsuki,

who wore male clothes that 'reminded one of Rich- ard Talmadge's figure', pleased the audience.10 Af- ter an advertising campaign describing the latest equipment imported from the U.S. along with Ameri- can technical advisors, Japanese cinema fans watched the films made by this new company with curiosity. Indeed, some of them appealed to an audience with eccentric ideas. For example, the first scene of Shosatsu (Laugh and Kill, the company's second film, featured a race between a train and a car. The audience was amazed to see this in a film of the Jidai-geki genre. But then suddenly the scene changed into a normal Jidai-geki setting . Such eccentricity disturbed the story as well as the audience. Some of these films were produced under the

Fig. 3. Aoi Ga (Blue Moth, directed by Shigeyoshi Suzuki, Bantsuma Tachibana Universal).

367



Hiroshi Komatsu

supervision of Jay Marchant, who had been sent from America by Universal.

Among the early films of Bantsuma Tachibana Universal, Shigeyoshi Suzuki's Aoi Ga (Blue Moth) was singled out as the most artistically successful work. Harold Smith's photographic technique and its exquisite sense of art direction were praised highly. The critic Chisoo Kimura described certain characteristics of this film such as a western-style house with Japanese tatami (mats) and shoji (paper screens) or the frequent use of extreme close-ups.11 The editors of the film journal Eiga Jidai held a meeting to write a joint review and evaluated it as a 'film of tomorrow'.12 Harold Smith had full responsi- bility for the cinematography for this film, which became the first Gendai-geki produced in Batsuma's Uzumasa studio. He believed that the author of a film was the director. He listened to all of Shigeyoshi Suzuki's ideas for the film and achieved excellent camerawork. Suzuki himself learned many things from Smith's contribution.13 His next film Hibari (Sky- lark) was more successful than Aoi Ga. This extremely poetic film created 'a very comfortable tempo through a dreamlike blending of natural dis- solves and traveling shots moving alongside the houses in an old foreign town. It was praised as 'Universal's epic masterpiece'.14

Bantsuma Tachibana Universal was the first film company in the history of Japanese cinema to make films in partnership with a foreign company. Partly because of this novelty, the box office was not bad during the first month. However, except for such modernist directors as Shigeyoshi Suzuki and lyokichi Kondo, there were no directors in the company who had progressive ideas about cinematic art. Particularly in Jidai-geki, there were no works that were equal to the films produced by Makino, Nik- katsu and Shochiku. And except for Michel Strogoff, a French film that Universal had re-edited and dis- tributed, not many appealing Universal films were combined in programs with these Japanese films. However, the biggest reason that Bantsuma Ta- chibana Universal's films were abandoned by the audience was that the company never released a film starring Tsumasaburo Bando, even though the company belonged to him. As mentioned, the films Bando starred in were exclusively released by Sho- chiku. And so the popularity of Bantsuma Tachibana Universal quickly faded.

Bantsuma Tachibana Universal had released about 30 of the films they had produced by the end

of May 1927. Because of declining business, Bant- suma and Universal terminated the contract at that point, and film production stopped. Problems between the two companies led to a lawsuit.15 The failure of this partnership demonstrated that building a new form of Japanese cinema was not so easily achieved as simply bringing in technical and economic resources from the United States. The breakdown of this Japanese-American company also tells us that the audience as well as the film companies still needed stars. The dreams of Ryosuke Tachibana and Tsumasaburo Bando to increase the exposure of Japanese cinema internationally through Univer- sal came to nothing.

Although Bantsuma Tachibana Universal released films only during the first half of 1927, this was an important attempt in film production. For the first time, Japanese cinema experienced a comprehen- sive introduction of technical and economic resources because of collaboration with a foreign company. lyokichi Kondo's Utsukushiki Kijutsushi (A Beautiful Prestidigitator), which was released after the breakup of Bantsuma and Universal, was the result of this experiment in filmmaking. Kondo used a wideangle lens to shoot a scene in the compart- ment of a real train, and outdoor scenes in the evening were shot on panchromatic film.16 Such innovative techniques had never been realized before Universal's assistance. Therefore, compared to the big companies such as Shochiku and Nikkatsu, Bantsuma Tachibana Universal was able to adopt more refined, modern techniques for film production.

Sound film It is generally agreed that the transition to sound in Japanese cinema was extremely late compared to the United States and the main film-producing countries of Europe. The primary cause is said to be economic: Japanese companies did not have sufficient capital at that time for a general move into sound film production. There was also a cultural factor that stood in the way of sound. The benshi's narration was extremely important for screenings in Japanese movie theaters. In this sense silent films were already regarded as talking pictures by the audience. For many people, going to the movies meant not only watching films but also listening to the voices of the benshis who narrated them. The transition to sound film threatened to destroy these popular benshis and probably contributed to its delay.

368




However, many foreign sound films were imported after 1929. In 1930 the overwhelming majority of foreign films released in Japan were sound films. On the other hand, Nikkatsu did not adopt sound film widely after producing Mizoguchi's Furusato (Home Town, 1930). Similarly, Shochiku's transition to sound went slowly even after the success of Heino- suke Gosho's Madamu to Nyobo (Madam and Wife, 1931).

Since the failure of the attempt of the Kineto- phone in the teens, no experiments in sound film had been carried out in Japan. But after the news of the success of sound film in the United States, some Japanese people became interested. Yoshizo Mina- gawa (1882-1960) was one of them. Originally a trader, Minagawa had been active as a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tokyo since 1921. When he went to the United States in 1925, Minagawa met Lee de Forest and returned to Japan with the Asian rights to Phonofilm. For five days beginning 1 July 1925, he held a show at Shinbashi Enbujo in Tokyo of 16 Phonofilm titles that he had brought from the United States. Later he showed this program in several other places in Ja- pan.17 To learn how to make Japanese sound films using the Phonofilm system, Minagawa sent Yoshio Chiba, a cameraman, and Masao Igarashi, an electrician, to de Forest's laboratory where the two men studied the technical aspects of his sound film system. After they returned to Japan, Minagawa founded a film production company called Showa Kinema Hassei Eiga Kyokai (Showa Cinema Talking Pictures Association).18 Minagawa believed that the production of Japanese sound films was not a mere novelty, but significant work that was artistically ambitious. This is clear because he contacted Kaoru Osanai (1881-1928), the famous author, dramatist and theater director, and asked him to make a sound fiction film. Kinema Jumpo reported on this first Japanese sound film using the Phonofilm system, calling it 'the expressionist film directed by Mr. Osanai'.

Mr. Kaoru Osanai is now directing an expressionist film Yoake (Dawn) with the new actors of Tsukiji Small Theater at the Showa Kinema studio, Omori, Tokyo. The director of photography is Mr. Yoshio Chiba, ex-photographer at the Shochiku Kinema, who returned to Japan after having studied filmmaking in France and the United States. The film will be completed at the end of April.19

a ana a n o nn -

Kaoru Osanai was one of the founding members of the Tsukiji Small Theatre. At the time, this theatre was the center of avant-garde stage activi- ties. Therefore, the film directed by Osanai and fea- turing the actors from the Tsukiji Small Theatre was meant to be an avant-garde film. The title was changed to Reimei (which also means Dawn), and it was previewed at a hall of the Imperial Hotel on 11 October 1927. The script of this three-reel fiction film was written by Yukio Sato, a film critic, who re- counted:

This was certainly an adventure. Even in the United States at that time one did not attempt to make a Phonofilm with dialogue instead of intertitles. There had been no sound film whose chief component was the voice (dialogue), which was as important as the image. Therefore, Reimei was the world's first attempt to give the image and the voice equal importance in a film.20

This was Kaoru Osanai's first experience working in the cinema since he supervised some films for Shochiku in 1921. Before shooting began, he said that he would 'restrict the use of sound and voice as much as I can'. And he also stated that 'not so much as pure cinema or absolute cinema, we would like to show certain cinematic effects through set design, light, acting tempo, rhythm, sound effects and mon- tage. This last element is the most important for us'. The story of Reimei was not so important. Osanai wanted to make a film that appealed to the senses: 'there are probably many people who watch this film and do not understand it at all. It is natural. There are

Fig. 4. Utsukushiki Kijutsushi (A Beautiful Prestidigitator, directed by lyokichi Kondo, Bantsuma Tachibana Universal).

369

.f.... ...

·; . ~ . w rSP' .;~.,?. .....: : X:

· ' .::;..~....~:-:' : : !:.: ::"-

:^ ! : j:' : ,::¢::

i·.. .' ' : -:

i!L· ~ ~~~a . .. - >

d·~~~~~~. jgm~ .....C

L: : b:z.



Hiroshi Komatsu

many people who listen to a piece of music and do not understand it'.21

It seems that Osanai tried to achieve a kind of avant-garde expression with this sound film, thinking about how cinema was different from the theatre. For example, in the first scene, the actors staged a shadow play, a scene in which 'a wife is on the verge of being killed by her husband. It is shown by silhouettes seen through a curtain. The voice in this scene is the terrified cry of the wife.'22

According to the cutting continuity, here is the first scene of Reimei:

House of Man C (the living room on the second floor).

The incident that occurs in the next room is projected as a shadow play on the wall of this room through a thin screen.

The living room (fade-in).

The figure of Woman C, terrified, is reflected on the wall.

Woman C is completely distraught by the ap- proach of death.

Man C's figure appears.

He confronts her with the coolness of the beast.

He approaches her. The shadow of Woman C runs away.

Man C chases her.

Empty for a while - A wind bell hung under the eaves is seen.

Woman C appears again, and then the figure of Man C as well.

Driven into a corner, Woman C resists.

The hand of Man C touches the Woman's waistband.

The band comes loose.

Woman C turns.

Seeing her band grasped by the Man's hand, Woman C is terrified.

Woman C's 'cry'.23

Opening the film with a scene showing only the actors' silhouettes effectively demonstrated

Osanai's daring intention to blur the realistic aspect of sound film through visual abstraction. However, this first attempt to make a sound film in Japan by Phonofilm represented a struggle between artistic ambition and technical difficulties.

Norimasa Kaeriyama took a different position from Osani's experiment in his discussion of the artistic potential of sound film in 1927.

We think, first of all, that sound film is conven- ient and will save money because it does not need the benshi and an orchestra. And it can be run quite efficiently. Next, we have to think through the special qualities of sound film. If it is simply a talking machine, we don't need it and it won't last long. But if sound film uses the special characteristics that I recommend, then I believe that it will last a long time.24

And Kaeriyama continues. 'The sound film must be based on sound - not sound accompanying the image, but movement based on sound'.

Osanai seems to have intended exactly that. In his use of the Phonofilm system, he wanted to achieve an expression through image and sound that was specific to the cinema. But the technology was inadequate to achieve this effect and audiences were unwilling to accept it. Kaeriyama reported that the Phonofilm program in Japan did not succeed because it was constantly breaking down. And Osanai's expressionist experiment using sound film was too elevated for the general audience, who were interested in sound as a novelty. However, research into sound film was continued by other people, and several sound films were made before 1930. Among the early attempts, however, Kaoru Osanai's work, with its avant-garde aspirations, was an exception. After the preview on 11 October, a program of Japa- nese Phonofilms including Reimei was released on 15 October at three theaters in Tokyo. The public did not seem to notice. 'Mr. Kaoru Osanai produced a sound film. The general film world did not pay any attention to this news. The guys at Tsukiji had made a toy film. That was the general opinion about it'.25

Auteurism In the year 1927, auteurism in the cinema was already generally accepted as a matter of course. Artistically it was the year of silent cinema's highest achievement. While star vehicles were at the height of their popularity, the idea that the author of cinema was its director had pervaded even the general film-

370




going public since 1924. The film journal Eiga Hyoron , founded in 1926, published special issues on directors such as Fritz Lang (May 1926), Marcel L'Herbier (June 1926), Victor Sj6strom (July 1926), James Cruze (September 1926), Erich von Stroheim (Octo- ber 1926), King Vidor (November 1926), Charles Chaplin (January 1926), Jacques Feyder (April 1927), Ernst Lubitsch (May 1927) and F.W. Murnau (June 1927). Individual issues were also dedicated to Japanese directors such as Minoru Murata (March 1927) and Kyohiko Ushihara (December 1927).

On 28 December 1927, the editorial members of Eiga Hyoron selected the ten best foreign films and five best Japanese films released in Japan during that year. According to them, the best foreign films were Chang (Merian C. Cooper), 7th Heaven (Frank Borzage), L'lmage (Jacques Feyder), The Big Parade (King Vidor), The Quarterback (Fred New- meyer), The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjbstrbm), You Never Know Women (William Wellman), Hotel Impe- rial (Mauritz Stiller), Variet6 (E.A. Dupont) and Camille (Fred Niblo), only two of them European. The five best Japanese films selected were: Chuji Tabi Nikki Shinshu Kesshou Hen (Chuji's Travel Diary, Shinshu Kesshou Episode, Daisuke Ito), Hazukashii Yume (A Shameful Dream, Heinosuke Gosho), Chuji Tabi Nikki Koshu Satsujin Hen (Chuji's Travel Diary, Koshu Satsujin Episode, Daisuke Ito), Sabishiki Ranbomono (A Lonely Wild Fellow, Heinosuke Gosho) and Karakuri Musume (The Trick Girl, Heinosuke Gosho) .26

The Japanese titles represented films by only two directors, Daisuke Ito and Heinosuke Gosho. Chuji Tabi Nikki Goyo Hen (Chuji's Travel Diary, Goyo Episode), the third part of Ito's trilogy, was not released until the end of December, and probably the editors had not yet seen it when they made their selection. If they had seen it, all the films of the Chuji trilogy would surely have been named. Ito and Gosho were the new directors at Nikkatsu and Sho- chiku, respectively, and they began to make a series of innovative works for these two companies at the same time.

Daisuke Ito had already made his debut as a film director at Teikine in 1924, but the works that were widely praised were made after his debut at Nikkatsu in 1926. At the Nikkatsu studio in 1927, nine directors were working in the Gendai-geki unit and nine directors in the Jidai-geki unit. These 18 directors made all their films at the studio in Kyoto. At that time, Jidai-geki was very popular. In particular, Tsu-

masaburo Bando's popularity was enormous. All of the films starring Bando were released through Sho- chiku although he made them with his own company. Makino, Bando's old nest, was a small but vital company that specialized in Jidai-geki. With Mat- sunosuke Onoe's death in 1926, Nikkatsu lost its star actor in Jidai-geki. Subsequently they tried to sell Goro Kawabe as their new star.

Many of the super-productions in the Jidai- geki genre at Nikkatsu were directed by Tomiyasu Ikeda. In 1927 he made big productions such as Sonno Joi (Reverence for the Emperor) and Okubo Hikozaemon (Hikozaemon Okubo). When Daisuke Ito entered Nikkatsu's Jidai-geki unit, he began to make Jidai-geki films with a personal vision and style that had been absent anywhere up to then. In con- trast to the traditional Jidai-geki, Ito's works did not depend on the star's popularity or on well-known historical stories. With his two early Nikkatsu films Chokon (Eternal Sorrow) and Dohatsu (Rage), Daisuke Ito stole the hearts of critics and audiences alike. In a text called 'Praising Mr. Daisuke Ito', script- writer Kesshu Tsukuda described him as the new- comer at Nikkatsu's Kyoto studio.

In the world of Japanese film, where growing numbers of dubious and arrogant people are appearing, it is no exaggeration to say that only Mr. Daisuke Ito is struggling with precious artistic passion. Every time I think about Mr. Ito, I am irritated to have to ask why he cannot be given the boldest job. Ito is the great fighter who carries Japanese cinema on his back. I think he is an artist of a quality rarely seen in the Japanese film world. With the two films that he released last year, Chokon and Dohatsu, our film industry should have honestly admit- ted that Mr. Ito had conquered it.27

However, Nikkatsu seemed to have given Ito the opportunity to create rather freely. Besides the famous trilogy of Chuji Tabi Nikki, in 1927 he was able to make an experimental film like Seirei (The Living Soul) and a pioneering tendency film like Gero (A Subordinate) at this studio. (The so-called tendency film, strictly speaking, was the Japanese version of the proletarian film.) Seirei was a good example of how ambitiously Ito tried to make experimental film art. And at the same time, it indicated that it was Jidai-geki, and not Gendai-geki, that provided a space to attempt various purely cinematic experiments. This is astonishing because Jidai-geki had

371



Hiroshi Komatsu

A

W

_ }-- -- - -

once been the most conservative of the film genres. Ito tried to express the sensation that Chopin's 'Fan- taisie Impromptue' gave to the audience.28 In the first scene of this film, a coffin opened and a ghost emerged from it. The ghost began to speak to the audience. Then the film told two mysterious stories. It seemed to have had a dime thriller atmosphere like the German ballad films (Balladenfilme) written by Thea von Harbou. A critic named Seirei one of the most impressive Japanese films released in 1927.

Among Japanese films, I was amazed when I saw Seirei, directed by Daisuke Ito of Nikkatsu. It was a story of a princess and two swords- men mysteriously unfolding against the back- ground of a legend about a lake. First of all, I was overwhelmed by its unparalleled, exquisite photographic technique. For example, a swordsman who had become a ghost told his brother who had just come to visit him, 'here is a very strange story. It begins on the top of that mountain'. And he pointed his finger up- ward. Then the image suddenly moved up- ward from that finger to the top of the mountain. That is one good example. And at the end, the protagonist, who is himself a ghost, believed in the existence of mystery, the existence of living ghosts and all the possibilities of the supernatural. Again and again he insists on it to the audience. But after everything is over, he said that if you don't want to believe it, then don't. And he smiled. That is how the film ends. What a bold, refined ending of the melancholy mystery it is!29

Seirei was, however, too highbrow for the general public. And there was a certain breakdown of form in it. For instance, according to Ippei Fukuro, a famous researcher of Russian cinema and a film critic, 'this auteur's self-satisfaction resulted in a story and characters that are vague. Particularly in the second half of the film, the tempo tends to be interrupted. The mysterious door appears again and again. It weakens the power of this cinematic form'.30

It is, however, interesting to see that this kind of experimental work was made in between the trilogy of Chuji Tabi Nikki. The year 1927 was indeed a prolific year for Ito. Before Chuji Tabi Nikki Goyo Hen, the last film of the trilogy that was released at the end of the year, he made Gero, which the contemporary critic Fuyuhiko Kitagawa praised highly. According to Kitagawa, it was more important than the Chuji Tabi Nikki series. And it 'far surpassed the quality of today's average Japanese film'.31 The story is about the irreproachably faithful servant of a samurai who was cheated and killed by his master. Such a des- perate representation of oppressed people had been seen before, notably in the samurai films like Tsumasaburo Bando's Jidai-geki. But unlike those films, Gero was permeated by a strong class con- sciousness. In this sense, it was the forerunner of the tendency film. At Nikkatsu following Gero later in the

Fig. 5. Seirei (The Living Soul,

directed by Daisuke Ito,

Nikkatsu).

Fig. 6. Seirei.

372



The Foundation of Modernism: Japanese Cinema in the Year 1927 -.-.......

same year, Kichiro Tsuji directed Yari Kuyou (A Mass for the Spear), which had a similar content. Although students had begun to read the works of Marx and Engels, no tendency film in the strict sense existed in 1927. The new genre would appear two years later when Daisuke Ito directed the Jidai-geki tendency film Zanjin Zanba Ken (Master Sword of Man and Beast) in 1929.

Heinosuke Gosho had been working as a director of Gendai-geki at Shochiku's Kamata studio since 1925. After a short period of military service, he returned to the Kamata studio where he suddenly began to make excellent films. In fact, he was not yet in an important position at the studio. Most of the films he directed then were released in the supporting position on the theatre program. But by the middle of this year, he was considered to be one of the most remarkable auteurs. Matsuo Kishi, a critic, wrote a study on Gosho as early as the summer of 1927.32 After that, he was considered to be a top director, even though some films had been made only six months earlier. A film director observed early in 1927: '1 am stagnant as a film director. If I am careless, I might backslide. But Mr. Gosho is moving forward, perhaps not so fast, but steadily. Making progress is the most important thing for us. The unexpected gap occurs before one is aware of it'.33

Contrary to Ito's Jidai-geki, the protagonists in Gosho's Gendai-geki are ordinary people. They are never heroes. All of them aspire to something in their lives and dream of love with the opposite sex. But their hopes are beaten down and their longing for the opposite sex is made impossible. Many of his films in 1927 belong to the comedy genre. However, unlike most Japanese comedies until then, his had an obvious ideology, like Chaplin's comedies. He did not follow the Marxist ideology then current, but rather a kind of philosophy of resignation toward life. Sometimes the handicapped appear in Gosho's films. Although this was not rare in Japanese films, the philosophy of life in Gosho's films was vividly described through such disabled people. In Karakuri Musume, the woman who tries to drown herself is mentally handicapped. The theme of Okame (The Plain Woman) is facial ugliness. The heroine in Mura No Hanayome (The Bride in the Village) is also handicapped. These aspects provoked some critical con- demnations. Some critics called them morbid. There was even a comparison between Gosho's concern with disability and the films of Lon Chaney.34 While the films of student romance or the films in which

sportsmen were the protagonists were extremely popular, and so-called small citizen films (shoshimin eiga) advocated by Shiro Kido, head of the Kamata studio, were becoming the dominant trend of Sho- chiku films, such 'morbid' traits in Gosho's films indeed gave quite a different impression. However, along with Daisuke Ito's new Jidai-geki, Heinosuke Gosho's Gendai-geki had power to change the traditional formula of Japanese cinema.

Fig. 7. Mura No Hanayome (The Bride in the Village, directed by Heinosuke Gosho, Shochiku).

Imitation and originality After imitating the Occidental form of cinema, the year 1927 in Japan brought freedom from this imitation. Traditionally, in the theatres, Japanese music was played with Japanese instruments when Japa- nese films were shown. Playing a single instrument like the Biwa or narration through Naniwa Bushi songs were also popular in motion picture theatres from the late teens to the early twenties. Foreign films were accompanied by ordinary Occidental music, mostly the popular classics. In 1927, a new way of accompanying films appeared - an ensemble of Japanese and western instruments. This ensemble spread everywhere in Japan and it became the standard style of silent film accompaniment. The dominant Japanese melodies were westernized for this ensemble style, and this kind of music was used for both Japanese and foreign films.35 This was probably the result of the rapid spread of Occidental music in Japan after the beginning of radio broadcasts in 1925. The motion picture theatre was no longer the only place to listen to western music in the provinces. Through the radio broadcasts, anybody could listen to European and American music as well

373



Hiroshi Komatsu

.iy ..s" . .--

as Japanese. Therefore music in the theatre necessarily had to be transformed. This mixture of Japa- nese and western music in the theatre became popular and this style would continue to accompany silent films until the mid-thirties, the final period of silent cinema in Japan.

Formally, Japanese cinema in the mid-twenties was strongly influenced by French and German cinema. The imitation of German expressionist film went back to the year 1923, and its echo still continued in several films in 1927. Among French films, Marcel L'Herbier and Abel Gance were particularly influential. The imitation of rapid cutting in La Roue (1923) had been seen particularly in Jidai-geki since 1925. Some popular American films were adapted in Japan. In 1927, Shigeru Mokudo's Ma No Numa (The Horrible Marsh) was an adaptation of Mary Pickford's Sparrows (1926), and Harold Lloyd's The Kid Brother (1927) was adapted by Shigeyoshi Suzuki as Yowa- mushi (The Coward), produced by Bantsuma Ta- chibana Universal.

Also, much foreign literature on cinema was translated and introduced. Film journals such as Kinema Jumpo, Eiga Oral and Eiga Hyoron published foreign film theories and critical texts. Most of the important contemporary books on cinema from Ger- many, France and the United States were wholly or partially translated there. These foreign studies about film, doubtless published without regard for copyright laws, seem to have been read not only by young people but also by film directors. Therefore, through these cinema journals, film fans and film directors learned how to express film art through language. Film criticism and film theories stimulated

the discussion of cinema. The role of intelligence became more important in filmmaking as well. In responding to these discussions through journalism, the relationship between literature and cinema became very close. The publisher Bungei Shunju, founded by the author Kan Kikuchi, launched the new film journal Eiga Jidai in 1926. This became the central place to encounter the people from literature and film. Kan Kikuchi actively promoted the adapta- tions of his own novels, and in 1927 Shochiku immediately made three films based on them: Chichi Kaeru (Father Returns), Niitama (New Gem) and Shinju Fujin. At Nikkatsu, Kenji Mizoguchi adapted Kikuchi's novel Jihi Shincho in the same year.

While the cinema was regarded as art, the stars advertised by film companies and the adapta- tions of novels written by popular authors helped the cinema become more and more popular. Most of the films produced were dependent on their stars. That was the result of the acceptance of the American star system by Japanese cinema. Indeed Matsunosuke Onoe was a star in the teens, but in a different manner than the stars of European and American cinema. His portrait had never been an icon on postcards; it was never an object to be collected. Contrary to this, stars of Jidai-geki in the twenties became the objects of this kind of visual adoration; The postcards of Tsumasaburo Bando, Momono- suke Ichikawa and Chojiro Hayashi sold extremely well. The stars of Gendai-geki imitated the comport- ment of American stars. Actresses were more sensi- tive to this vogue than actors. Imitation of fashion existed everywhere in the cities. In the latter half of the twenties, new behavior in the cities came about through imitating cinema stars. All this caused the birth of a colony called the entertainment world. People became interested in gossip about stars and their scandals. The rise of cinema's popularity created a current of journalism devoted to reporting on the stars' private lives.

Minoru Murata, who was one of the most important directors in the twenties, planned the ambitious work Tsubaki Hime as his first work in 1927. But this film was involved in the year's biggest scandal in the entertainment world, causing tremendous damage to Murata's creative powers. In this Japa- nese version of Camille, the role of Armand was originally to be played by the new actor Ryoichi Takeuchi and Marguerite by Yoshiko Okada. Murata began shooting with them. But before shooting was finished, the two eloped and disappeared. Comple-

Fig. 8. Tsubaki Hime (Camille,

directed by Minoru Murata,

Nikkatsu).

374

:II: : Y.-- - 'ill



The Foundation of Modernism: Japanese Cinema in the Year 1927 ,, . ............. ............... ....... . . .. .. . r .:.r . .......9

tion of the film became impossible. Newspapers and

magazines reported this scandal, and finally the

couple was discovered in Kyushu. This incident created a huge amount of publicity for Nikkatsu's Tsubaki Hime . But Murata was obliged to begin shooting all over again with different stars. The final work was not an artistic success because even Mu- rata, the master of Gendai-geki, had to produce films based on the popularity of stars. The star had become that important. The role of Marguerite was intended for Yoshiko Okada. It was not transferrable. Shizue Natsukawa, who played the protagonist in the final film, was a good actress, but the film had

already been promoted as a star vehicle, conceived for a different actress.

The year 1927 for Japanese cinema was, on one hand, the apex of silent cinema in the same

Kinema Jumpo 239 (11 September 1926): 20.

Kinema Jumpo 278 (1 November 1927): 14.

Junichiro Tanaka, Nippon Eiga Hattatsushi, vol. II (Tokyo: Chuokoron, 1976), 71-72. Tanaka's five volume book is comparable to Georges Sadoul's His- toire g6enrale du cinema. Tanaka began to write these books in the forties. He published some parts in Kinema Jumpo in the fifties. The entire edition was published for the first time in the sixties, and since then he has revised the books many times. The 1976 version is the final and definitive one. It is unclear, therefore, exactly when he wrote this statement.

Shibai to Kinema (March 1927): 13.

Ibid., 15.

Eiga Hyoron (February 1928): 113.

Kinema Jumpo 239 (11 September 1926): 20.

Kinema Jumpo 241 (1 October 1926): 58.

Kinema Jumpo 242 (11 October 1926): 31. See also an article written by A.S.C. member Alfred Gosden that provides more details about the equipment and the general operation, and that also reveals the cultural bias of the American contingent, American Cinematographer (December 1927): 8,16-19. Kinema Jumpo 253 (21 February 1927): 44.

Kinema Jumpo 254 (1 March 1927): 47.

Eiga Jidai (April 1927): 82-85.

Shibai to Kinema (March 1927): 14.

Eiga Jidai (June 1927): 42.

Kinema Jumpo 264 (11 June 1927): 6.

sense as it was in Europe and the United States. On the other hand, the cinema was transforming itself and its impact extended to society in general. Japa- nese cinema was accepted as an art form as it was

assimilating the Occidental form of cinematic art.

Japanese cinema was recognized to be at the same

stage as European and American cinema. The prob- lem of imitation and originality lies there. To achieve an innovative character, Japanese cinema had to be confronted with foreign cinema. It was, in a sense, a battle against foreign cinema. Although there had been technical and economic problems, the delay of sound film and the extension of the silent film period must have been historically and artistically inevitable in order to create a Japanese cinema that would overwhelm the influence of foreign cinema by the further refinement of silent film art.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

Shibai to Kinema (August 1927): 12-13.

Sporadic showings of Phonofilms continued in 1927. Asahi News, an advertising flyer for a theatre in Kumamoto, described it as follows: 'The sound film came to Asahi-za on the 12th. This is good news for the people who missed it two years ago. It reveals the real power of motion picture to convey events. It caused a tremendous sensation in people of the modern age.' Asahi News (8 November 1927). Kinema Jumpo 250 (21 January 1927): 18. Kinema Jumpo 258 (11 April 1927): 12.

Kinema Jumpo 313 (11 November 1928): 61.

Eiga Jidai (August 1927): 19.

Koshiro Tachibana, Toki Tsu (Tokyo: Sanseido, 1930), 103.

Eiga Jidai (August 1927).

Eiga Jidai (July 1927): 29.

Kokusai Eiga Shinbun (May 1929): 8.

Eiga Hyoron (February 1928): 174.

Nikkatsu Eiga (April 1927): 71.

Kinema Jumpo 264 (11 June 1927): 57. Shibai to Kinema (December 1927): 4-5.


Kinema Jumpo 280 (21 November 1927): 60. Kamata (April 1927): 65.

Kamata (April 1927): 65. Kinema Jumpo 288 (1 March 1928): 50-51.


Notes

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

375



the year 1927 || the foundation of modernism: japanese cinema in the year 1927

Documents