Cinema year book of Japan (1937)

with this sort ot difficulty. But lately the possibility of overcoming this state of affairs has begun to be apparent. New film companies have been formed which have duly taken into consideration the fact that most of the silent screen actors of old established firms proved unsuitable for the “talkie”, and have accordingly employed numerous Shingeki actors in the produc¬ tion of their films. At the same time, regarding as they do that the function of the scenario writer is not merely that of adaptation, these new film organizations have invited competent play¬ wrights to write for the screen. In short, the cooperation of the Shingeki and the Cinema has but just begun. It has offered security of employment to the Shingeki actors who have always been in strait¬ ened circumstances due to the meagreness of their financial returns. It has also assured the livelihood of new playwrights who have never entertained any ambition, either for the present-day stage or for present-day journalism. The interests of the two groups, however, unite only in this respect, so that we have yet to see them perfect this combination on all essential points in the manner which, one observes, the Western films have done. On the contrary, there are indications that the Shingeki actors, who ought to be in a position to guide the production of “talkie” films, have as likely as not been induced to prostitute their practised art in the interest of the tawdry commercialism of the Cinema. The scenario writers have fallen into a similar strait. The Shingeki group concerned in this work had not yet, in short, discovered the essential methods of improving the film play, nor have the film producers arrived at that state wherein they could utilize to their advantage the original and distinctive character of the Shingeki. It is worthy of note that, in meeting such a situation, a movement is now afoot, advocating a study of the defects of the Shingeki and of the Japanese Cinema and the training and development of new actors as a means of bringing the two groups together into a working harmony. Should this be realized, the relationship between the Shingeki and the Cinema of Japan is bound to become incomparably closer and more compact than that prevailing in the various Western countries. There is a remarkable difference in the type of people in Japan who patronize theatres that show Western films and those that exhibit Japanese films. Most of the film plays of Japan are far below the standards of Western pictures due to their reactionary character in the cultural sense, their bad taste, and their crudeness; but, fundamentally speaking, none of the former possesses any human qualities in the way of charm or appeal. Motion picture production in Japan is organized on a small scale, and the industry 44