JAPANESE FILMS

Rare Snapshots of Setsuko Hara

Setuko Hara during shooting of HIKARI TO KAGE (1939) I found some rare snapshots of Setsuko Hara in Japanese movie magazines from 1930’s and 1940’s. Smiling under a microphone and intense sunlight. This photo above was taken during the shooting of HIKARI TO KAGE (LIGHT AND SHADOW, 光と影, 1940, dir. Yasujiro Shimazu). Shimazu directed 19-year-old Hara for the first time in this film. He was inspired by her performance even though he found her still stiff and lacking in some basics of the art of acting. From this film on, Shimazu carefully mentored her in six films until his untimely …

 
GERMAN FILMS / JAPANESE FILMS

About the Meal Prepared by the Cultural Elites and its Nutritional Merits

While UNTERNEHMEN MICHAEL (1938) was released after Japanese censorship had butchered it, another Karl Ritter’s film, URLAUB AUF EHRENWORT (1938) was banned in its entirety. According to Akira Iwasaki, the official reason given was that film depicted the officer’s insubordination to the orders. However, by the time its ban was announced, this film had already been screened to directors, producers, writers and critics in film industries, and some magazines published their reviews and discussions on their pages even. These insiders praised URLAUB AUF EHRENWORT unanimously, some calling it a masterpiece. Around the same time, Marlene Dietrich’s DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) …