'BOBTAIL' REVIEW / JAPANESE FILMS

Undying Pearls (1928)

Hiroshi Shimizu’s UNDYING PEARLS (1928) is the story of two sisters, who live two different life styles, but want the same thing: being loved. This is another Shochiku’s “women’s picture”, full of melodramatic twists, colorful characters, and fashionable clothes. Toshie, the elder sister, fell in love with Shozo Narita, a rising entrepreneur, but her introverted nature and extreme shyness prevented her from expressing her emotions. The best she could do is to write a very polite letter to Narita, with a reserved expression like “I would like to have a conversation with you”. Reiko, the younger sister, is a “modern …

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JAPANESE FILMS

Conversion to Talkies : Case for Foreign Films

Newspaper ad for MOROCCO (1930), Note the subtitles in the image. Japanese is written vertically. One of the problems unique to Japanese cinema industry in early 1930s was demise of Benshis, interpreter/lecturer/storyteller of movies. During the silent film era, a Benshi was an essential part of movie experience. He stood right next to the screen and provided live speech to audience, explaining and coloring up the events up on the screen. He gave the background of the story, imitated conversation between characters, or supplemented anecdotes of the film. Popularity of a Benshi was an important ingredient for movie business, sometimes …

 
JAPANESE FILMS

Conversion to Talkies: Price of Technology

In the interview published in Jiji Shinpo, July 3, 1932, T.D. Cochran, the head of Paramount Tokyo Branch, condescendingly pointed out the miserable state of talkie in Japan. He recommended Japanese motion picture studios to quit developing their own “inferior technologies” and to use superior U.S. technologies instead. “It is true that Western-Electric system’s license fee is expensive,” he said. “But we have a discount for Japanese market at $200 per reel. You have to pay $500 per reel in New York.” It’s 60% off. It sounds terribly a good deal. But very few Japanese companies actually adapted the Western …