A Brief History of Independent Cinema in Japan and the Role of the Art Theatre Guild

A brief history of independent cinema in Japan and the role of the Art Theatre Guild Roland Domenig (University of Vienna) The notion of „independent cinema“ varies consid- dominate the film market, but a closer look reveals erably depending on the context. Whereas in the that this is true only at the level of distribution, not United States the term „independent“ in relation at the level of production. Today the three big stu- with cinema primarily relates to the films made dios Tōhō, Shōchiku and Tōei turn out only a hand- outside the dominant film studios of Hollywood, ful of in-house productions. More than 90 % of all in Europe it has quite different connotations. On films are produced independently from the studios. the one hand, the term „independent“ refers to Even on the level of distribution, where the studios films funded publicly by communities, the state or still play a dominant role, more than 75 % of the the European Union. The subsidies system, so the films are distributed by “independent” distributors. argument goes, guarantees the filmmakers the free- These films usually have a far more limited release dom to realize their visions of cinema „independ- than the films distributed by the studios, which also ently“ from commercial considerations and without run their own theatres. Most of these films are low- catering to the tastes of the movie-going majority. budget productions with little prospect of making The subsidies system is seen as a guarantee for the a lot of money at the box-office or even to recoup continuity of national film traditions that without the production costs. Although the term “independ- financial support could not compete with the block- ent” still connotes an opposition to the big studios, busters made in Hollywood and elsewhere. On the the fact that they have virtually dismissed their film other hand, in countries like in Germany the term production and that the majority of films are distrib- „independent“ sometimes refers to low-budget pro- uted by distributors other than the studios, makes ductions that fall through the grid of the subsidies the term “independent” very ambiguous. The het- system and that are made without public funding. erogeneity of form, style and content makes it also In Austria the term is also used for productions difficult to understand “independent” as a synonym made without participation of the public broadcast for “Arthouse” films, for commercial “mainstream” system that dominates domestic film production. In films fall into this category as well. As it seems, the China or other authoritarian nations, the term pri- denomination “independent film” has today all but marily means “independent from state control or lost its meaning. interference from the authorities”. This article will The advent of independent produc- examine the meanings of „independent cinema“ in tions relation to Japan. I will point out how the meaning has changed over time and that it is necessary to In the 1920s, when the first so-called independ- keep the historical context in mind when speaking ent productions or dokuritsu puro appeared, the of “independent Japanese cinema”. In accordance situation was quite different. Since the formation of with the topic of the conference the focus will be Nikkatsu, the first big film studio in Japan, in 1912, on the 1960s and 1970s and especially on the Art a studio system had developed that dominated the Theatre Guild. rapidly growing film production, but that left many Now, what exactly does “independent” mean directors and actors dissatisfied. The establishment in the context of Japanese cinema? State control or of their own production companies was a deliber- interference from the authorities does not seem to ate reaction against the studio system, which dis- be a big issue in Japan. Neither is there a public sub- tinguished them from the other small production sidies system such as in most European countries. companies that existed before or alongside the film There are film studios in Japan that still seem to studios. The motivations behind the establishment 6 MINIKOMI Nr. 70 of dokuritsu puro were manifold. Some became An overview of independent film production “independent” for artistic reasons, as in the case of before the war would not be complete without Kinugasa Teinosuke, who founded his own produc- mentioning the Proletarian Film Liga or Purokino. tion company in 1926 in order to realize the ambi- Founded in 1927, the Communist Purokino move- tious Kurutta ippeiji (“A Page of Madness”), an ment was short-lived – it was banned in 1934. early masterpiece of avant-garde cinema. Another Other than the star productions and the director’s example is Makino Shōzō, who was disillusioned productions which operated within the confines with the conservatism of Nikkatsu, in 1921 left the of a commercial cinema, the Purokino movement studio and established his own production company pursued primarily a political goal. Although they Makino kyōiku eiga seisakusho, later renamed never accomplished making feature films, the Makino Kinema (1923) and finally Makino Pro- Purokino played an important role in advocating an duction (1926) which played an important role for alternative mode of film exhibition. A premise of the development of Japanese cinema. From Makino the movement was that the cinema must go to the Production there emerged a number of important people and not the other way round. They rejected directors such as his sons Makino Masahiro and movie theatres and took their documentaries and Matsuda Sadatsugu and actors, who reinvented the animation films to factories and assembly halls as jidaigeki genre. part of their political activism. The anti-capitalist In most cases, however, it was economic con- Purokino movement strived not only for independ- siderations that caused actors and directors to estab- ence in production but also independence in distri- lish their own companies. Along with the studio bution and exhibition. This alternative way of pro- system a star system emerged; the leading actors duction, distribution and exhibition – jishu eiga and and actresses started to compete with the benshi, jishu jōei in Japanese – became an important model the obligatory film narrators, for the favour of the for independent productions after the war. audience. Very soon the stars began to demand their Independent film after the war share in the profits. Kataoka Chiezō, Bandō Tsuma- saburo, Arashi Kanjūrō and Tsukigata Ryūnosuke, In the late 1940s,a second wave of independent pro- the leading stars of the popular jidaigeki , founded duction companies emerged, this time mostly for their own production companies which marked the political reasons. After the war, the studios had to beginning of the so-called star-productions. A simi- conform to the new demands of the allied occupa- lar development can be observed in the 1960s when tion forces headed by the United States. They also popular stars like Mifune Toshirō or Katsu Shintarō had to deal with labour unions that were established established their own production companies. Thus, under the influence of the allies and exerted enor- the stars were able to make more money. Also, they mous pressure. Tōhō was shaken by three major were no longer dependent on a single employer, but strikes which brought the studio to the edge of ruin. had more choices. This brought them higher sala- The third strike, which lasted for 195 days, was ries as well as a greater freedom. In the end, how- ended in August 1949 by the intervention of the ever, the stars remained dependent on the studios Japanese police and the U.S. army. Later on, during and the big cinemas, just as the studios and cin- the so-called Red Purge, Tōhō and the other stu- emas depended on the popularity of the stars. Many dios took their revenge by firing left-wing filmmak- important directors such as Itami Mansaku, Inagaki ers and personnel. The outbreak of the Cold War Hiroshi or Yamanaka Sadao emerged from these led to a change in occupation policies and to the star productions that flourished in the late 1920s suppression of the communist-dominated labour and early 1930s. From the mid-1930s onwards, unions. In 1950, members and sympathizers of the with increasing centralization and tightening of Communist Party were removed first from official state control many of these independent production positions and later from the private sector by order companies were swallowed up or supplanted by the of General MacArthur. More than 300 people in big studios, who gained power and dominated the the film industry lost their jobs in this way. As a film market. In 1941, the war government ordered result many left-wing directors established their all movie companies to merge into the three blocks own production companies. Yamamoto Satsuo, Shōchiku, Tōhō and the newly established Daiei. Imai Tadashi and Kamei Fumio founded Shinsei Thus the first phase of independent productions Eigasha, Kamei later created his own Kinuta Puro, came to an end. Yoshimura Kōzaburō, Shindō Kaneto and Yamada MINIKOMI Nr. 70 7 founded Kindai Eigasha, and there were a number pied certain gaps in the market, but were often of other leftist production companies such as Yagi dependent on the studios either as sub-contractors Puro, Shinseiki Eigasha, Gendai Puro and Mingei or because they had to fill out their repertoire. How- Puro. With the backing of labour unions as well ever, in the late 1950s, when the studios regained as the Communist Party they made films about their power and the studio system flourished, the the proletariat and the citizen’s struggle against studios left almost no room for independent pro- the bureaucracy and the state. The films criticized ductions. In 1959, when the studio system reached the establishment and exposed the contradictions its peak, there were no independent productions at within Japanese post-war society.

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