Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1928 - Feb 1929)

84 "Katsudoshashin" Yoshiko Okada and her leading man were dismissed from a movie company because they eloped. in Tokyo, they are examined by the prefectural police. Besides this, every theater in the country is equipped with a police officers' booth. One officer occupies this booth at all times, and every picture shown is at his mercy. This officer has it in his discretion to delete any part of any picture. As the films are sent to the various provinces, they are examined by the prefectural authorities, and by the time a picture of an amorous nature returns to the capital, it is about two thirds of its original length, if not less. In many instances, in fact, a picture has been cut to such an extent that it is difficult to follow the continuity of the story. But here again the Japanese have a panacea. This is in the form of subtitle readers or translators, who, with their vivid descriptions supply audiences with a verbal picture of the scenes deleted by the censors. The subtitle reader plays a very important part in Japanese theaters. What he says is forty per cent of the entertainment. He, moreover, has it in his power to make or break a picture. There are M nearly ten I thousand subtitle readers in Japan to-day. These men have Denmei Suzuki, the handsomest star in Japan, with two of his leading ladies. established their own schools of subtitle translating, just as jujutsu experts in olden Japan founded schools in which their method was taught, experimented with, and improved. It may surprise movie fans of the United States to learn that while most of the subtitle reading in Japan is done in theaters, numerous phonograph records have been produced, on which the verbal descriptions of subtitle readers have been recorded. Another source of entertainment is listening to subtitle readers over the radio. So vivid are the descriptions provided by some readers, over the radio and phonograph, that persons who have sat through one performance of a good picture can almost imagine seeing it over again, merely by listening to the subtitle reader. Thus, instead of going to a theater twice, or even thrice, to yiew the same picture, a Japanese fan needs merely to purchase a record and run it in his home and be, figuratively, transported into a playhouse. The phonograph recording of an old picture, "The Sea Beast," starring John Barrymore, was so vivid that tens of thousands of records have been sold. Turning now to the influence which American pictures have had on Japan. Most people acquainted with the Far East know that osculation was quite unknown to the Japanese before the introduction of American motionpictures, and that kissing scenes in films were, until very recently, clipped by the censors. It probably will be surprising, therefore, to most readers, to be told that kissing is today widely practiced in Japan, and while not yet indulged in publicly, is done with considerable fervor and frequency in private. Let us now turn to the matter of The kimono, the lovely national attire of the land of cherry blossoms, is fast disappearing, and in its place one finds to-day an array of American apparel. If one were to visit Japan to-day, he would no doubt be astonished, during even so brief a stay as a month, to perceive the constantly increasing number of girls who are doffing their native dress to appear in foreign cosContinued on page 107 Kurishima Sumiko is known as "the Gloria Swanson of Japan," and is Nippon's most capable actress. costumes.