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made and are making the most poignant films in the world, except concerning a few instances wherein it reveals interesting contrasts of " Old and New," such as small wooden houses vs. big modern buildings, Jinriki-sha vs. a motorcar, Geisha -vs. modern girls with bobbed hair and dressed in foreign style, etc., which, however, amount to no more than mere contrasts on account of its failure to pursue the phase of conflict between them. In spite of the dissatisfaction above described, it may be said that the film Greater Tokyo propagates, though superficially, Tokyo and so Japan as a cultural heterogeniety. I think that the film is now, at the time of writing, being shown through the Soviet Union, so it is likely to be seen in other European countries. I cannot help desiring that readers of Close Up would do all in their power to see this Russian-made Japanese film.
Other films dealing with Japan have been published by the Board of Tourists Industry in the Railway Department with the object of introducing Japan abroad and beckoning tourists to Japan. In addition to the English titles, they have English vocal interpretation. Japan in Four Seasons, Japanese Festivals and Kyoto and Nara are these films, the first-named being the most interesting, of eight reels, each two reels devoted to one season. Despite of the superior quality of camera handling, it is a fatal defect, one critic says in his review contained in the recent Eiga-Hyoron, that they have been made to reveal Japan as she is conventionally considered by foreigners.
Lastly I will explain Japan in a few words after the example of Miss Klara Modern who has endeavoured to maintain true Vienna in the 1932, June issue of Close Up. Really, Japan as a modern state dates only from sixty years ago. Through this short period, Japan has changed into a civilized and modernized state from a feudal country, by absorbing and digesting the European and American civilization and culture that have been established in the course of about 150 years since the industrial revolution which originated in the invention of a steam engine, by James Watt in 1782. Such a rapid progress has Japan made that she has not yet completely emancipated herself from many old things and ideas bequeathed by the previous ages, although she has acquired completely or at least so externally the civilization of the Western World. Japan is, in a word, an agglomeration of old and new. This is justification for the many, queer, irrational, despicable things you have often seen in films ; furthermore, I would daresay that it is very unfortunate both for you and us, Japanese, that you have never wanted to know and understand Japan of to-day, or more correctly, the present thoughts and ideas, of the general young Japanese intelligentia as the brain of the nation, who are struggling especiaUy recently against the oppression by the old, dogmatic and transcendental to establish the new, rational and scientific.
Finally, I express my sincere regret over the death of Mr. Harry Alan Potamkin, great film critic and commentator of the United States of America, on behalf of the whole circle of the Japanese film critics.
Yasushi Ogino.
Yokohama, Japan. September, 1933.