Cinema Year Book of Japan 1938 (1938)

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Kisao Uchida FOREIGN FILMS IN JAPAN. ACHIEVEMENTS AND EFFECTS If not to the whole of the Japanese population, at least to its cultured stratum, films imported from Europe and America are now assuming a position of importance almost equal to that of necessaries of life. At present there are being produced many excellent pictures at home — the progress of the Japanese film has been remarkable, indeed, during the past few years — and the people show a growing interest in domestic productions. But the demand for European and American movies has not diminished. One of the reasons for the unchanging popularity is their general superiority to native productions. Another and perhaps more important reason is the desire of the Japanese public to be in touch with the culture of the West through the screen, in other words, an unending search for foreign culture, and a desire to enrich their own by the knowledge obtained therefrom. Fortunately, Japan imports not only American films but a good number of Continental ones. Resources, therefore, for promoting the Japanese culture are not limited to one country, but are furnished liberally by many countries, with a variety of cultural peculiarities. Quite unfortunately, however, this supply of material for study has ceased since the close of 1937 : a temporary embargo on imported films has been effected because of the urgency of foreign exchange control resulting from the Sino-Japanese emergency. But the Government is now deliberating on some proper means to settle the question. I11 all probability it will not be long before foreign films may be imported again. This interest of the intelligentsia in the cinema dates back some time, in reality from the time when the cinema passed from the stage of “ novelty shows ”. In those early days, many movie versions of literary works were imported from Italy, France, etc., to be shown to the public. They included such masterpieces as Salainmbo , II Sogno dim Tramonto d' Autumno, The Resurrection and Faust. At that time, however, neither the showmen, who were merely circus promoters, nor the public knew that these were stories from B’laubert, D’Annunzio, Tolstoi and Goethe. The former exhibited, and the latter saw, while both remained ignorant of the fact they were in touch vis-a-vis with some of the landmarks of world literature. The first ones to awake to this situation were the contemporary men of letters who were just then starting a movement for the translation and introduction of Western novels and plays. These men got together and founded the Bungei Katsudo Shashin Kai (Literary Motion-Picture Society) for the purpose of encouraging and disseminating such films as have been mentioned. That happened in the year of 1912. This movement by literati and novelists did not last long. Various reasons may be given for this, but probably the most important is the fact that motion-pictures had begun an independent process of development, forsaking its previous reliance upon other, more established arts like literature anti the stage. As a natural consequence, filming of literary works became fewer and fewer. But the cinema which had thus denounced its allegiance to the senior arts did not, could not, rank with the established arts. And that was reflected in the class of Japanese cinema-fans : men of letters kept away from the movie-theatres and the cinema served the masses only as a form of cheap amusement. There were, however, occasional exceptions such as Cahilia, Italian film written for the screen by D’Annunzio, and Thomas II. Ince’s Civilization. These extraordinary productions did not fail to catch the attention of our people. But, on the whole, the period in which the cinema was generally regarded as inconsequential amusement lasted until after the Great War. But even during this period the film kept on making steady progress. As for the movie-fans, those who had, from earlier days, been susceptible to the charm of films such as the early Italian historical films, the French serial Zigomar, the American serial Broken Coins and the Universal’s “Blue Bird Pictures”, were 51