JAPANESE FILMS

Frames Per Second

What is the right speed for silent film projection? 16fps. That’s the standard. Right? Or, somewhere between 12 and 24 fps, some says. There are on-going debates about the speed even for Hollywood studio films in twenties, let alone some early films of 1910s and 1900s. When it comes to early Japanese cinema, the question sounds like a bad joke. Makoto Ohmori, the cinematographer since the wake of Japanese film production, gave a vivid picture about how the shooting and projection of films had done in early 20th century Japan. First of all, the camera speed during the shooting was …

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DOCUMENTARY FILMS / JAPANESE FILMS

Buzz of A Honeybee and the Island of the Holy

Iwai-shima, a small island of 7.67 square kilometers in its area and 12 kilometers in its perimeter, is a part of Kaminoseki/Kumage county of Yamaguchi prefecture. It is located in the west end of the Seto Island Sea (the sea you see in Ozu’s “Tokyo Story”), just several kilometers off the coast of the main land. The population is only little more than 500, roughly 70% of which are over seventy years old. These aging islanders are making living by line fishing and small-scale farming on steep slopes of the island. The place is often hit by typhoons, which sometimes …

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JAPANESE FILMS

An Apron as a Weapon

Many people believe that an oppressive, totalitarian government is designed by a group of devils wearing human skins. The nation is hypnotized by cunning propaganda, led to believe the blood-tainted doctrine, and subliminally conditioned to sacrifice their life for those devils. Today, we would notice these devils when we see them. A modern democratic society will not tolerate such a diabolical political process. So we believe. The problem is, some totalitarian regimes were the products of democratic process. Nazi party won 230 seats in Reichstag as a result of the 1932 federal election. In Japan, though no particular political party …

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