#Kindai Eiga

[fuckyeahmeikokaji]

Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子).

Scanned from Kindai Eiga (近代映画) January, 1973.

[doraemonmon]

The Tigers Special - Kindai Eiga

[shihlun]

The logos of Kaneto Shindo's legendary independent film company "Kindai Eiga Kyokai" from different periods.

[ayuvogue]

Flashback: Pre-Avex Ayu in Kindai Eiga

[destinyisstupid]

1/10 - "Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director" (1975) by Kaneto Shindo

My favourite documentary and probably the best documentary on the life of a filmmaker. AK, Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie & Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky are all with merit but none of the creators were as intimately aware of its subject as Shindo was with Mizoguchi; apprenticing under him for 10 years while both were working at Shochiku. Not only is it the portrait of an artist, it's a record on early Japanese cinema and a history of the country as it entered into its difficult 20th century.

[toshiro-mifune]

Images of Toshiro Mifune at home in Kindai Eiga magazine, 1950s

[notshonagon]

On the shore of Matsuho, waiting for him, who will not come, – in the evening calm, like the salty seaweed, my body in love, also burns.

A poem composed by Fujiwara no Teika, the person also credited for selecting the poems we now know as Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. I felt the need to come back to Teika and his poem, and will do my best to add the Chihayafuru part soon.

Poem 97. Fujiwara no Teika・konu hito wo (please see notes of the post for the link)

Although the amount of information in the post can seem overwhelming, I hope to be able to expand on many of the matters mentioned there. 

On Teika’s poetic treatises, especially the mentioned

Kindai shūka (Superior Poems of Our Time, 1209);

Eiga no taigai (Essentials of Poetic Composition, 1222);

On his diary

Meigetsuki, The Record of the Clear Moon;

On one other collection

Hyakunin Shūka (Superior Poems of One Hundred Poets; 1235), which shares 97 poems and 98 poets with Hyakunin Isshu but includes a few different poems.

Teika’s poetics and aesthetics, his experiences and surroundings, - I feel that all of those matters have shaped the Hyakunin Isshu that we know today (in a sense of the poems included, at least; the order of the poems is another matter worth tackling). 

As the titles and images can take the reader on a journey hundreds of years ago, that journey might not seem as alien as the distance in time suggests. 

[sightego]

toshiro mifune in kindai eiga, june 1953

[kimonobeat]

Farewell, school days. “I graduate from high school this spring. I've been feeling really lonely, and I feel like I’m leaving so many things undone. There aren’t many days left. I’d like to relish them in my own way...” ーOkada Yukiko, Kindai Eiga (April 1986 issue)

[hah89]

Setsuko Hara advert for Fuji Film Setsuko Hara advert for Fuji Film on Kindai Eiga, 1951. Check out Yasujiro Ozu on set of Good Morning here

[paralleljulieverse]

This Week in Julie-history: STAR! opens in Japan, 17 August 1968 

After the gala world premiere of Star! in London, the next port-of-call in the film’s global roadshow rollout was Japan where Star! bowed at Tokyo’s Marunouchi Piccadilly Theatre on 17 August, 1968*, followed by a nationwide release to other major cities including Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya and Sapporo. That Japan was chosen as only the second country in the world to premiere Star! is indicative both of the enormous significance of Japan as a market for Hollywood film in this era and of the popularity of Julie Andrews among Japanese audiences. 

With the resumption of international trade following World War II, US film studios eyed the previously regulated Japanese market as a prime target for export growth. Aided by the Allied occupation and the interim administration’s agenda of actively spreading “Western” values, Hollywood flooded the postwar Japanese market with movies, thereby cultivating a growing taste among local audiences for American product and “turning the formerly protectionist state into a lucrative and dependable film market” (Kitamura, ix-xi). The success of the campaign was neither instant nor absolute, of course, and American cultural imports faced considerable resistance among sectors of the Japanese national community, both then as now. By the 1950s, however, US share of the Japanese box office had grown to 40%, double its pre-war figures, and Japan emerged as the largest single foreign consumer of Hollywood films outside the Anglosphere (Kitamura, 178). 

Unlike many other foreign markets, Japan was receptive to a wide range of American film genres, including importantly musicals (Gerow, 157-59; Seagrave, 77-78). Possibly because Japan already had well-developed cultures of musical theatrical entertainment and had long incorporated song and dance as an element of its own homegrown film genres, local audiences responded positively to Hollywood tuners. Many of the big roadshow musicals of the 50s and 60s such as The King and I (1956), South Pacific (1958) and West Side Story (1961) posted some of their best foreign returns in Japan (Wade, 149; Wells, 236). 

It was a context primed for success by the time Julie Andrews hit Japanese screens in the mid-sixties. All three of Julie’s big screen musicals of the era –– Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) –– were smash hits in Japan, with The Sound of Music becoming the single biggest grossing film in Japanese history (Mullen, 14). Even Julie’s non-musical films –– Hawaii (1966) and Torn Curtain (1966) –– fared extremely well in Japan, cementing a position of preeminent fame and popularity for the star that endures to this day (Mitani 1975; Screen 2006).

It was, thus, not surprising that Fox should have prioritised Japan as a key market in the global distribution of Star! As with the UK release, Star! came in to Japan on a massive wave of pre-release publicity. Newspapers and magazines carried stories and photos, and the distinctively vibrant commercial and entertainment centres of Japan’s bustling cities were peppered with posters, hand-painted billboards and flyers. Japan’s largest department store, Takashimaya partnered with Fox for a major two-and-a-half month PR campaign, featuring a different item of Star! merchandise every day for 10 weeks and distributing to their customers 50,000 heavy-duty colour bags illustrated with Star! advertising art (“Tokyo Shoppers”: 3). Even the soundtrack LP was given a special high-profile release in the Japanese market with Victor Nippon and 20th Century Fox records combining for an unprecedented large-scale promotional push at theatres and retail outlets across Japan (Erwin, 58).

In keeping with local film marketing practices, the Japanese campaign for Star! developed much of its own visual material, styled to accord with local tastes and aesthetic traditions. Unlike the illustrated pictorialist forms that dominated mid-century film advertising elsewhere, Japan pioneered an arresting photomontage style rooted in conventional modes of Japanese visual composition but updated for modern sensibilities. Featuring photographic cut-outs blended into a non-perspectival collage enhanced with handpainted touch-up techniques and juxtaposed with brightly coloured kanji logograms, the “glorious visual confections” of Japanese film art possess an energetic style all their own (Masuda and Black, 4). In the case of Star!, the result is some of the most visually dynamic –– and, given the characteristic Japanese attention to quality, sumptuously produced –– marketing material for the film anywhere in the world. 

Much like the film’s UK reception, Star! met with widespread critical acclaim in Japan. Eiga hyōron, the Japanese magazine of film review, called it: “A genuine terrific musical. It captivates the heart. STAR! can’t be missed” The Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper similarly enthused:

“Gem-sudded STAR! is the epitome of musicals. Julie Andrews proves herself with a charming new image…robust, darling, glamorous and radiant. Exceptionally fabulous giant creation by Robert Wise. Highly entertaining. Suited for all ages” (”Unprecedented Raves”, 111).

However, again like the UK experience, Star! didn’t quite take off at the Japanese box office as hoped. After an initial period of very brisk business –– it broke box office records in its first week at the Maranouchi Piccadilly (“On the Spot”, 584; Edwards 1993) –– ticket sales started to soften. Star! did however enjoy a more high profile afterlife in Japan than in many other territories. In line with the popularity of revivals in the Japanese film market, Star! had several theatrical rereleases in Tokyo and other major cities during the 70s and 80s. In addition, the soundtrack LP, which was a solid seller in Japan, was reissued in 1974 with new cover art. 

All of which confirms the timeless truth of that ancient Zen proverb: 

“If the lady’s someone who is worshipped from afar She’s a genuine, positive, totally marvellous, perfectly wonderful STAR!”

Notes:

* For some reason, IMDb incorrectly lists the Japanese opening of Star! as 24 August 1968. It is also gives incorrect release dates for the film in several other territories including Australia. Don’t always believe what you read on the internet, kids!

Sources:

Edwards, T.J. “The Saga of ‘Star!’”. Star! Special Edition LaserDisc. Beverley Hills, CA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1993.

Erwin, Elson. “International News Reports: Tokyo.” Billboard. 6 July 1968″ 54-58.

Gerow, Aaron. “Japan.” The International Film Musical. C. Creekmur and L. Mokdad, eds. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012: 157-170.

Kitamura, Hiroshi. Screening Enlightenment: Hollywood and the Cultural Reconstruction of Defeated Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.

Masuda, Tetsuya and Black, Kairakutei. Japanese Movie Posters: Yakuza, Monster, Pink, and Horror. Tokyo: Cocoro Books, 2002.

Mitani, Koji, Julie Andrews: Kiyorakana hibiki meruhen no yume / ジュリー・アンドリュース―清らかなひびき、メルヘンの夢. Tokyo: Haga Shoten, 1975.

Mullen, Shaun D. “Schmaltzy Movies Queue ‘Em up In Tokyo.” The News Journal. 5 October 1970: 14.

“On the Spot Reports.” The Outlook. 30 September 1968: 584.

Screen, Queen of Musical Julie Andrews / ミュージカルの女王 ジュリー・アンドルーズ. Tokyo: Kindai Eiga-sha, 2006.

Segrave, Kerry. American Films Abroad: Hollywood’s Domination of the World’s Movie Screens. Jefferson: McFarland, 1997.

“Tokyo Shoppers Will Be Walking Ads for ‘Star’.” Film and Television Daily. 12 August 1968: 3. 

“Unprecedented Raves Greet 20th Century-Fox’s Newest Roadshow Attraction at its Premieres Around the World!” Daily Variety. 29 October 1968: 111-12.

Wade, Bonnie C. Music in Japan: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Wells, Elizabeth A. West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2011.

Copyright © Brett Farmer 2018

[fuckyeahmeikokaji]

Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子).

Scanned from Kindai Eiga (近代映画), July 1972.

[doraemonmon]

Kindai Eiga - Pink Lady Special

[mandarake-en]

Coming to the #Mandarake Zenbu 100 Big Web Auction Kindai Eiga 1973 July Edition - Cover Page: Junko Sakurada https://t.co/E0L3vtt2Bo https://t.co/rAoW1mC3rp Mandarake Twitter: http://twitter.com/mandarake_en Mandarake Facebook: http://facebook.com/mandarake (Automated Tumblr Post)

[dummy-kanji]

Kyo Color_Kindai_Eiga_1952_4 por Jason S Por Flickr: Machiko Kyo, Kindai Eiga Apr 1952.

[yerevanintheworld-blog]

QUIEN RECUERDA A HACHIKO EL PERRO 🐶 FIEL . SIEMPRE A TU LADO VERSION USA Hachiko era un perro de raza Akita que pertenecía a Hidesaburo Ueno, un profesor de ingeniería agrónoma de la Universidad de Tokio que murió en 1925 tras sufrir una hemorragia cerebral mientras impartía una de sus clases. Sin embargo, el fiel can continuó acudiendo todos los días durante 9 años a la estación de Shibuya a la hora en la que llegaba el tren que siempre traía de vuelta a Ueno. Cuando el diario Asahi recogió por primera vez su historia en 1932, "Hachiko" se convirtió en toda una celebridad, y así los usuarios de la estación de Shibuya comenzaron a dar de comer y a atender al can a diario. Estos días en Japón se recuerda los noventa años del nacimiento de Hachiko, el perro más fiel jamás conocido. Es por esa razón que en esta galería te contamos en detalle su vida Shindō nació en la Prefectura de Hiroshima e hizo varias películas sobre Hiroshima y la bomba atómica. Como sucede con su primer mentor Kenji Mizoguchi, muchas de sus películas expone el personaje de mujeres de carácter. Fue un pionero de la producción independiente en Japón, fundando la empresa Kindai Eiga Kyokai. Continuó trabajando como guionista, director y autor hasta su muerte a los cien años. También realizó una serie de películas autobiográficas, empezando con el drama de 1951 Story of a Beloved Wife, sobre su experiencia para convertirse en guionista; en 1986 Tree Without Leaves, sobre su infancia; en 2000 By Player, sobre su empresa; y su última película Postcard, dirigida a los 98 años y basada en su etapa en el servicio militar. Hachikō Monogatari es una película japonesa protagonizada por Tatsuya Nakadai, Kaoru Yachigusa,  (en Tokió) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByeUKm9B66r/?igshid=1e9jcijrvvw2v