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adopt with respect to their media of dissemination in presenting the actual scene which would please the people of Europe and America, resulting inevitably in a work which is anything but unique or worthwhile.
Just as it is needless to promote the interest value of such places as London’s Trafalgar Square and its famous bridge, Paris’ Place de la Concorde, Berlin’s Unter den Linden, and New York’s Fifth Avenue, and just as we find, on the contrary, that London’s White Chapel and Paris’ Rue de Lappe and New York’s Harlem tar more inter¬ esting, so the exploitation of an actress like Mae West and the background of Mistinguett is far more effective and entertaining, I think, than post cards or maps of famous places — it even constitutes a kind of cultural propaganda — and it is really regrettable that my wishes in this respect are bound to be regarded as a disgrace to the country. This asser¬ tion, in short, involves the truism that there are certain foods, for instance, which are apt to produce harmful effects upon the human system, yet are very relishing, and that people generally crave to see things which are not shown them. The movies of Japan are devoid of serious involvements and are to that extent dull; are simple and therefore lack depth. Possessing as they do only a surface complexity, their substance, I think, has hardly yet attained that degree of excellence which would draw the interest of all the peoples of the world.
I believe that the Cinema has greater possibilities than reading matter, paintings or photographs in enabling people everywhere to familiarize themselves without much difficulty with the state of things throughout the world; and since the earth’s surface offers a wide and fertile field for disseminating purposes, I earnestly hope that organiza¬ tions like the International Cinema Association will continue with still greater efforts in presenting every aspect of the culture of Japan to the people of other lands, and take an all-inclusive view of this country’s achievements and characteristics in participating in the cinema activities of the world.
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