JAPANESE CINEMA

Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world, it was the fourth

largest by number of feature films produced.

In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of

US$2.338 billion.

Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen

arrived.

Some notable Japanese films are Rashomon, Tokyo

Story, SevenSamurai, rasGodzilla, Ugetsu, Yojimbo, Harakiri, The Woman in the

Dunes, In the Realm of the Senses, Tampopo, Grave of the Fireflies, Akira, Ninja

Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Hana-bi, Battle Royale, and Spirited Away.

Silent Era Japanese “silent movies” were never silent.

From the very first showing of motion pictures in Japan in 1896 until the end of

the silent era in 1939, a person, or a group of people, always supplied a verbal

component to the motion picture show.

The most widely accepted Japanese word for this “narrator” is benshi, although

the term changed over time.

Benshi formed a central part of the “silent movie” experience in Japan by

explaining what the motion picture was about, either before, during, or after the

show.

While one can find examples of similar motion picture narration elsewhere in the

world, Japan is the only place where narrators proved to be an influential and

integral part of silent cinema.

To many “silent” cinema fans in Japan, benshi were a major attraction.

• Shōzō Makino (September 22, 1878 in Kyoto - July 25, 1929) was a

Japanese film director, film producer and businessman who is regarded as a

pioneering director of Japanese film.

• The first female Japanese performer to appear in a film professionally was

the dancer/actress Tokuko Nagai Takagi, who appeared in four shorts for the

American-based Thanhouser Company between 1911 and 1914.

• In his 1917 film The Captain's Daughter, Masao Inoue started using techniques new to

the silent film era, such as the close-up and cut back.

• New studios established around 1920, such as Shochiku and Taikatsu.

• Japanese films gained popularity in the mid-1920s against foreign films.

Films from this period include:

o Sakanaya Honda,

o Jitsuroku Chushingura,

o Horaijima,

o Orochi,

o Maboroshi,

o Kurutta Ippeji,

o Jujiro,

o Kurama Tengu: Kyōfu Jidai,

o Kurama Tengu.

Sakanaya Honda also known as Fish and

Swordsmanship and Sakanaya Kenpo, is a 1929

Japanese directed by Shuichi Yamashita.

Orochi, translated as the Eight-Forked Serpent

A Page of Madness is a silent film by Japanese film director

Teinosuke Kinugasa, made in 1926. It was lost for forty-five years

until being rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971.

Kurama Tengu: Kyōfu Jidai is a 1928 black and white

Japanese silent film with benshi accompaniment directed by

Teppei Yamaguchi.

1930sTaki no Shiraito (The Water Magician)

• Produced by Irie Production, 1933

• 98 minutes / 24 fps

• Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

• Cast: Takako Irie, Tokihiko Okada, Ichiro Sugai

Tojin Okichi

• Produced by Nikkatsu Uzumasa, 1930

• 130 minutes / 24 fps. Only 4 minutes have survived.

• Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

• Cast: Yoko Umemura

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

• 1939

• Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.

• 142 minutes

Because of World War II and the weak economy, unemployment became widespread

in Japan. The weakness of the economy also had a very detrimental effect on the

cinema industry.

Hawai Mare oki kaisen literally: The War at Sea from

Hawaii to Malay, is a 1942 black-and-white Japanese

film directed by Kajiro Yamamoto.

Sanshiro Sugata was the directorial debut of the Japanese film

director Akira Kurosawa.

First released in Japan on 25 March 1943 by Toho film studios,

the film was eventually released in the United States on 28 April

1974.

The film is based on the novel of the same name written by

Tsuneo Tomita.

Drunken Angel (酔いどれ天使 Yoidore tenshi?) is a 1948 Japanese yakuza

(film genre) film directed by Akira Kurosawa.

It is notable for being the first of sixteen film collaborations between director

Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune.

• Stray Dog is a 1949 Japanese police procedural film noir directed

by Akira Kurosawa .

• starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura.

Late Spring is a 1949 Japanese drama film, directed by Yasujirō

Ozu and produced by the Shochiku studio.

It is based on the short novel Father and Daughter.

The Mainichi Film Award was created in 1946, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan.

GOLDERN AGE The 1950s were the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

The decade started with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice

Film Festival in 1951 and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1952.

Carmen Comes Home is a 1951 color Japanese comedy film directed

by Keisuke Kinoshita.

Filmed using Fujicolor, it was Japan's first color film.

There was also a black-and-white version of this film available.

Gate of Hell is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. story of a samurai.

Filmed using Eastmancolor film and the first Japanese color film to be released outside Japan.

Palme d'Or grand prize award at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.

Academy Honorary Award for "Best Foreign Language Film first released in the United States

during 1954", and Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color in 1955

the 1954 New York Film Critics Circle Award for "Best Foreign Language Film".

It also won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.

• Godzilla is a 1954 Japanese science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho,

directed by Ishirō Honda, and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.

• It was released in America as Godzilla, King of the Monsters.

o Ugetsu or Ugetsu Monogatari is a 1953 black-and-white Japanese film

directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and based on stories in Ueda Akinari's book of

the same name.

o It is a ghost story and an example of the jidaigeki (period drama) genre.

• Masaki Kobayashi made two of the three films which would collectively

become known as The Human Condition Trilogy: No Greater

Love (1958), and The Road To Eternity (1959).

• The trilogy was completed in 1961, with A Soldier's Prayer.

Japanese New

Wave The 1960s were the peak years of the Japanese New

Wave movement, which began in the 1950s and continued through

the early 1970s.

Nagisa Oshima, Kaneto Shindo,Masahiro Shinoda, Susumu

Hani and Shohei Imamura emerged as major filmmakers during the

decade.

Documentary played a crucial role in the New Wave, as directors

such as Hani, Kazuo Kuroki, Toshio Matsumoto, and Hiroshi

Teshigahara moved from documentary into fiction film, while feature

filmmakers like Oshima and Imamura also made documentaries.

Shinsuke Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto became the most

important documentarists.

Ring

(Ringu)o Japanese horror film by Hideo Nakata. It was the highest

grossing film in Japanese history.

o It had sequels and remakes, with the American adaptation “The

Ring” and “The Ring 2” which Nakata directed himself.

The next sequel “Rasen” was a failure and did

not match up to the succes of “Ring”.

“Ring 2” was produced and ignored the storyline of “Rasen” as it was

from a different writer.

“Ring 2” proved to be a success and the final of the series Ring 0:

Birthday was the best out of the three sequels.

The American

remake of the

Japanese film

“Ring”.

It was highly

successful and

opened the door for

American remakes

of Japanese horror

films.

It was ranked

6th in Top 20

Horror Films of

the Decade.

It was said that not only being the

first American J-Horror remake, it

still stands as the best.

A Japanese horror film

which had a success

of sequels and

remakes.

The American version is

known as The Grudge and

is the 2004 remake of

Ju-On.

Altogether there are four

series of the Japanese

version and three of the

American version.

• 1. Ringu

• 2. Ju-on: The Grudge

• 3. Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara US: Dark Water

• 4. Akira dir. Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988

• 5. Jisatsu Sākuru US: Suicide Club; Dir. Sion Sono, 2002

• 6. Chakushin Ari US: One Missed Call; Dir. Takashi Miike, 2004

• 7. Ōdishon US: Audition; Dir. Takashi Miike, 1999

• 8. Koroshiya Ichi US: Ichi the Killer; Dir. Takashi Miike, 2001

• 9. Kairo US: Pulse; Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001

• 10. Tales from the Dead Dir. Jason Cuadrado, 2007

THE

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