Stars of Japan

STARS OF JAPAN By HIDEO TSUMURA As the reviews 01 Japanese and Chinese films in our la8t issues seem to have found interest among our reade-Ts, we aTe ?IOW pttbl-ishing the Btory of Japan's studios, staTs, and directoTS. The altthor i8 a famou8 e:l;pert on the 81tbject who has already been introduced to our readers in connection with h-is film review in our April i8Bue.-K.M. HE present trend towards concentra 200,000 yen. The new allotment system T tion and unification in all spheres for the supply of raw film and the -of Japanese life has not passed by ensuing limitation to two films a month Japan's film industry, with the result for each company have already brought that there are now only three companies about a change in this practice. producing feature movies: the Shochiku, All three companies are now direct Dai Nippon, and Toho Film Companies. ing their efforts towards the production While until recently there were five of great works, and the average budget .companies, each producing eight films for each film is now around 200,000 yen, a month, the three present companies while films costing some 300,000 yen are now limited to the production of will also be produced in considerable two films a month each. This fact is numbers. However, super-productions bound to have far-reaching effects upon costing around 500,000 yen will be -current and future productions. limited to only a few a year. "QUICKIES" A further increase in expenditure on films cannot be expected until the In the past, Japanese films were, market for them has been considerably with few exceptions, produced as expanded, and the South Pacific regions, ·quickly and as cheaply as possible. which are the obvious goal in this Their distribution was limited almost direction, will hardly be opened up entirely to the domestic market; the for Japanese films before next year at only export before the war went to the very earliest. French Indo-China, Japanese residents in Hawaii and on for example, has so far only imported the Pacific coast of the United States two Japanese feature films, although and was limited to a few films a year. it is hoped to increase this number Moreover, each film company in Japan this year. The market for Japanese had its own chain of movie houses, educational and cultural shorts is slightly so that every film was shown in one more favorable. ·of these chains only. First-run theaters TWO AGES -seldom show a film for more than a week. There were hardly a dozen An interesting and unique character· films a year which could be shown istic of Japanese film production is for two consecutive weeks, so that the fact that it is divided into two films were generally passed on quickly separate and entirely different types, to second- or third-run houses, where the historical and the modern. Each the admission fees are very low. type has its own studios, its own directors and actors. This factor, All this combined to make the film together with the situation created by companies turn towards the production the amalgamation of former companies, of "quickies," as four films costing has resulted in each of the present 50,000 yen each were more profitable three companies owning several stu .and less risky than one film costing dios. 432 THE XXth CENTURY The Shocbiku Film Company has of the eye sockets and in the shape of three studios, that in Ofuna near Tokyo the nose. The Western face often where modern films are made, and lends itself particularly to camera two in Kyoto producing historical lighting, and it appears in many cases films. Ofulla is a town near the sea, more beautiful on the screen than it about an hour's train ride from Tokyo is in reality. and noted for its scenic beauties. The Ofuna studio is the largest in Japan, However, the Japanese face has covering twenty-five acres. It employs changed with time, and especially the some of Japan's best-known directors type of the Japanese woman's face has and a large number of beautiful young witnessed a remarkable change during actresses and popular young actors. the past ten years or so. The ideal Its specialty is pictures dealing with women of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) modern city life. generally had oval faces with long, narrow eyes. Today the round-shaped One of the Kyoto studios, in the face is on the increase, while the eyes vicinity of the beautiful Kamo River, are larger and closer to the Western is not being used at present. The ideal of beauty. Modern city women other is located in Uzumasa, a suburb have entirely given up the style of of Kyoto, where there are also two make-up fashionable during the Meiji studios of the Dai Nippon Film Com and Taisho Eras (before 1926) and pany. All these studios specialize in have adopted that set by modern historical films, for which Kyoto, with Western film actresses. Hair and clothes its many historical buildings and its styles have also changed accordingly. beautiful scenery, provides an ideal background. Thus with this change in the shape of the Japanese face the number of The most modern Japanese studio men and women with faces suited for as regards equipment is the Tokyo the screen has increased. l\foreover, a studio of the Toho Film Company. In special technique to bring out the it both modern and historical films are beauty of the Japanese face has been produced, and it is noted for its invented simultaneously with the prog veteran stars rather than for the youth ress in the art of photography. For and beauty of its actors and actresses. eign cameramen can hardly imagine to It is best known for the musical com what lengths their Japanese fellow edies it brings out every year, starring photographers go in order to catch the such famous stage comedians as Roppa characteristic beauty of Kinuyo Tanaka, and Enoken. It also produced Night a favorite star of long standing. in China, emphasizing popular music and starring Li Huang-Ian, an actress STAGE vs. SCREEN of the Manchukuo Film Company. Another characteristic of Japanese The Dai Nippon Film Company also film actors is that there are only a possesses two smaller studios in the very few who have come to the screen suburbs of Tokyo producing modern from the stage. The reason for this pictures. is that the Kabuki drama, the favorite theatrical entertainment in Japan, is THE JAPANESE FACE the art of style. This means that its Generally speaking, Japanese' actors actors are quite unsuited to the re and actresses are considerably hand alistic art of the camera. In addition icapped in comparison to their European to this, all women's parts in Kabuki and American colleagues, for the J apa are played by male actors known as nese face is not altogether suited for Oyama, and there are no actresses in the screen. Above all, it is a little too the whole Kabuki theater. Even in flat to show deep, expressive shadows the new school of drama which arose when lighted up for the camera. In in the Meiji Era, actresses did not most cases it lacks beauty in the hollow appear until some ten years ago. STARS OF JAPAN 433 Even now there are three Oyama has had a screen life of some twenty among its leading actors. years, yet she is scarcely over thirty Only those actors who have grown five. She is still immensely popular in up in the Tsukiji Little Theater young girls' parts, although her face are more or less qualified for the does not represent the pure Japanese screen. After the disbanding of this type. Her favorite role is that of a group, almost all of its members, who modest and tragic heroine in Japanese had long been trained in the acting of dress, and her acting is full of passion. modern Western drama, joined film She is not married. studios. In the end, however, it is Isuzu Yamada is a typical Japanese those actors who are exclusively film beauty. She has a rare talent in that stars who are popular with the public. she is good in both historical and modern Although, owing to lack of stage films. Her father was a famous stage training, they may not be proficient in actor of the new school of drama, and the technique of dialogue, they have she received an excellent training in pure the freshness of youth and the spirit Japanese music and dancing. The roles of modern times. she likes best are those of geisha girls of the Meiji and Taisho Eras and of A third characteristic of Japanese smart~looking professional entertainers. film actors is that they are divided In a recent production she played the into the two groups mentioned before, part of a Chinese woman spy. Although namely, those acting historical roles Isuzu Yamada has been before the and those representing modern char public eye for twelve years, she still acters of everyday life. Since the has a great future ahead of her. very beginnings of Japanese film pro duction, more than thirty years ago, Among the younger stars of the this pronounced difference has been Shochiku Film Company I would like noticeable. Each film company has to mention Mieko Takamine (Figs. 8,12), separate studios for these two types who is outstanding for her cultured of film, each with its own directors, and refined beauty.

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