Cinema Year Book of Japan 1938 (1938)

importation of news-reels is arranged by cable in case of great haste. It is in this fashion that a film like the one showing the disastrous end of the “ I lindenburg ” reached Tokyo within an amazingly short time, making use of air and other transportation facilities. The Lakehurst event, likewise, was shown on the screen as “ hot news ” in the remotest corners of Japan not long . fter the happening. News-reels of the Coronation of King George VI were publicly shown in Japan within less than a week’s time of the celebration, brought home by the Kamikaze which made the trans-EuropeAsia llight in record time of less than a hundred hours. It is no wonder that those European and American camera-men who had been in Japan until a few years ago, serving the Hearst -Metrotone, Eox-Movietone, and other companies, are no longer here: there is no further need for a foreign camera-man, and there is none. With the popular craze for speed, the former method of distribution which had been concerned mainly with the capital cities has become unsatisfactory to local news-fans. As a result, a new system of distribution has been worked out, whereby the first -run news-reels are shown in out-of-the-way towns at the same time they are shown in Tokyo. Naturally, the number of prints must increase in exact proportion to the importance of the event ; it has been on a steady up-grade, and during 1937 the number was almost twice that of the previous years. In this connection the increase in the number of news-film theatres must be noted also. Among those in existence in the capital cities of Japan, there are ten in Tokyo, five in Osaka, four in Kyoto, four in Kobe, all of which show signs of steady further increase. It is indeed an amazing development when one remembers that it was only in January, 1936, that the very first news-film theatre in the country came into being — the Eirst Basement Theatre at Hibiya, Tokyo. Equally noteworthy is the technical development of the news-film. We might mention as illustrations one or two outstanding cases : the picture of the stomach-wall at work in a living human body; the invention of a super-high-speed camera (^50,000 pictures a second j) whereby air waves can be easily projected on the screen. These are in themselves big news to the world of science, and really successful news-films as well ; something which Japan may well be proud of. It has been the general rule of the Japanese news-film that the field of vision of the camera — the range of themes — is somewhat limited as compared with that of other advanced nations, a natural outcome of the peculiar conditions of the country. And as a result the effect of the whole has been somewhat monotonous. But the technical evolution, referred to above, is gradually according the Japanese news-film larger fields of vision. No summary of the news-film activities of 1937 would be complete without reference to the Sino-Japanese conflict. For, after all, that is the biggest news of the year. As has already been described, it is the people’s concern over the current situation that has concentrated their eyes on the news-film. Over forty camera-men have been sent to the war zones to report through the camera the actual conditions of the warfare as caught raw and hot. It is their desperate efforts that enable us to visualize a bugle sounding “ charge ” in the foremost line of battle. The camera-man’s conscience for “ superior news for the people ” urges him to overcome difficulties. It is this faithfulness to professional conscience that prompted the camera-man Tsune Maeda to keep on turning the crank until death on the battle-field. Iliscase is only one of many. In order for the camera to catch the aspects of reality, such sacrifice is freely made. No technical tricks are needed when man’s best is given. 48