Cinema year book of Japan (1937)

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Naturally, they were not truly proletarian works. But the individual picture represented the position of the labour class with its extremely radical claims, and accused the capitalis¬ tic society of its many evils and injustices. For, whatever the motive of the producers, the artist — whether scenario-writer or director — himself had been affected by the current thought and subscribed to radical views. In this fashion was born that extremely dualistic genre of tendency films — capitalistleftist photoplays. “Ikeru-Ningyo” (A Living Doll, 1929) directed by Tomu Uchida, “Tokai Kokyogaku” (Urban Symphony, 1929) by Kenji Mizoguchi, “Nani ga Kanojo o So Sasetaka” (What Made Her Do It?, 1930) by Shige Suzuki, were all based on novels and plays of proletarian writers and proved tremendously successful. These were all “con¬ temporary” plays, but even among the “historical” movies there were some which, camouflaged in historical appearances, depicted most realistic class struggles, as for ex¬ ample, “Zanjin Zamba Ken” (A Sword that Kills Men and Horses, 1929) directed by Taisuke Ito, “Kasahari Kempo” (Vagabond Samurai, 1929) by Kichiro Tsuji, and “Reimei Izen” (Before Dawn, 1931) by Teinosuke Kinugasa. It was only too natural that finis was written to their short chapter. Censorship in a capitalist society did not remain long oblivious of its duty. Many tendency films were “cut” badly or totally banned. The cinema industrialists immediately stopped the production of this kind, and the leftist tendency pictures completely disappeared. As a reaction to the radical movement, popu¬ larity was to be monopolized by the so-called “nonsense” stuff and erotic or romantic pictures. But conscientious artists did not wish to go with the stream, leaving untouched the real problems of their society. Some of them took the alternative of depicting in a very real way the miserable petit bourgeois outlook of the unemployed and wage-slaves euphemistically called salary-man. Others chose to handle serious social problems into satirical comedies. The former group is represented by Yasujiro Ozu who directed “To¬ kyo no Gassho” (The Chorus of Tokyo, 1931) and “Umarete wa Mita Keredo” (Born as I Was, 1932); the latter by Tomu Uchida, the director of “ Adauchi Senshu” (The Champion of Revenge, 1931) and Mansaku Itami who directed “Kokushi Muso” (The Unrivalled Hero, 1932). The age of silent films in the history of Japanese screen art was thus coming to an end. Only one thing more in conclusion, and that is the important influence of Soviet movies upon the Japanese that came almost simultaneously with the birth of the tendency pictures. On account of strict censorship only a very few films found their way into Ja¬ pan. But those few excellent works, such as “Storm over Asia”, “General Line” and “Turksib” made a tremendously deep impresson upon interested people in Japan. The influence of Soviet screen art was not limited to its actual productions. For in the field of theories, the theory on montage held by Pudowkin, Eisenstein, etc., was the most helpful theory for the Japanese film-drama of that day. 9