89-443: Sorobanzuku ( そろばんずく ) is a 1986 Japanese film directed by Yoshimitsu Morita . 8th Yokohama Film Festival This article related to a Japanese film of the 1980s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cinema of Japan The cinema of Japan ( 日本映画 , Nihon eiga ) , also known domestically as hōga ( 邦画 , "domestic cinema") , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of
178-550: A Corpse). The first documentary, the short Geisha no teodori (芸者の手踊り), was made in June 1899. Tsunekichi Shibata made a number of early films, including Momijigari , an 1899 record of two famous actors performing a scene from a well-known kabuki play. Early films were influenced by traditional theater – for example, kabuki and bunraku . At the dawn of the 20th century, theaters in Japan hired benshi , storytellers who sat next to
267-549: A band of hired samurai who protect a helpless village from a rapacious gang of thieves. The same year, Kurosawa's friend and colleague Ishirō Honda directed the anti-nuclear monster-drama Godzilla , featuring award-winning effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The latter film was first ever Japanese film to be given a wide release throughout the United States, where it was heavily re-edited, and featured new footage with actor Raymond Burr for its distribution in 1956 as Godzilla, King of
356-490: A control rod that extends back from the elbow of the puppet. A third puppeteer, the ashizukai , operates the feet and legs. Puppeteers begin their training by operating the feet, then move on to the left hand, before being able to train as the main puppeteer. Many practitioners in the traditional puppetry world, particularly those in the National Theater, describe the long training period, which often requires ten years on
445-435: A copper plate. To ensure that the puppet head is not damaged, the finishing of the hairstyle is made with water and beeswax, not oil. The costumes are designed by a costume master and are composed of a series of garments with varying colors and patterns. These garments typically include a sash and a collar as well as an underkimono ( juban ), a kimono , and a haori or an outer robe ( uchikake ). In order to keep
534-478: A film professionally was the dancer/actress Tokuko Nagai Takagi , who appeared in four shorts for the American-based Thanhouser Company between 1911 and 1914. Among intellectuals, critiques of Japanese cinema grew in the 1910s and eventually developed into a movement that transformed Japanese film. Film criticism began with early film magazines such as Katsudō shashinkai (begun in 1909) and
623-532: A former kabuki actor, to star in his productions. Onoe became Japan's first film star , appearing in over 1,000 films, mostly shorts, between 1909 and 1926. The pair pioneered the jidaigeki genre. Tokihiko Okada was a popular romantic lead of the same era. The first Japanese film production studio was built in 1909 by the Yoshizawa Shōten company in Tokyo . The first female Japanese performer to appear in
712-408: A full-length book written by Yasunosuke Gonda in 1914, but many early film critics often focused on chastising the work of studios like Nikkatsu and Tenkatsu for being too theatrical (using, for instance, elements from kabuki and shinpa such as onnagata ) and for not utilizing what were considered more cinematic techniques to tell stories, instead relying on benshi. In what was later named
801-466: A precursor to the neorealism genre, was a silent film. A few Japanese sound shorts were made in the 1920s and 1930s, but Japan's first feature-length talkie was Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato (1930), which used the Mina Talkie System . Notable talkies of this period include Mikio Naruse 's Wife, Be Like A Rose! ( Tsuma Yo Bara No Yoni , 1935), which was one of the first Japanese films to gain
890-399: A production company to produce the experimental masterpiece A Page of Madness , starring Masao Inoue, in 1926. Many of these companies, while surviving during the silent era against major studios like Nikkatsu , Shochiku , Teikine , and Toa Studios , could not survive the cost involved in converting to sound. With the rise of left-wing political movements and labor unions at the end of
979-400: A puppet may be constructed so that its face can quickly transform into that of a demon. Less complex heads may have eyes that move up and down, side to side or close, and noses, mouths, and eyebrows that move. Controls for all movements of parts of the head are located on a handle that extends down from the neck of the puppet, and are reached by the main puppeteer inserting their left hand into
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#17328692209901068-676: A run at the National Theater. The National Bunraku Theatre also tours within Japan and occasionally abroad. Until the late 1800s there were also hundreds of other professional, semi-professional, and amateur troupes across Japan that performed traditional puppet drama. Since the end of World War II, the number of troupes has dropped to fewer than 40, most of which perform only once or twice a year, often in conjunction with local festivals. A few regional troupes, however, continue to perform actively. The Awaji Puppet Troupe, located on Awaji Island southwest of Kobe , offers short daily performances and more extensive shows at its own theater and has toured
1157-484: A single head. The head of Tamamo-no-Mae , by pulling a string, can instantly cover the face of a beautiful woman with a kitsune (fox) mask. It is possible to represent, with a single head, the true appearance of the nine-tailed fox that was disguised as Tamamo-no-Mae. Note that in Noh , the change in the attributes of the characters is represented by removing one of the double-layered Noh masks. The nashiwari ,
1246-505: A star symbolizing the beginning of a new era. In Yasushi Sasaki 's Hatachi no Seishun (1946), the first kiss scene of a Japanese movie was filmed. The Mainichi Film Award was also created in 1946. The first movie released after the war was Soyokaze , directed by Yasushi Sasaki , and the theme song Ringo no Uta was a big hit. The first collaborations between Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune were Drunken Angel in 1948 and Stray Dog in 1949. Yasujirō Ozu directed
1335-653: A theatrical release in the U.S.; Kenji Mizoguchi 's Sisters of the Gion ( Gion no shimai , 1936); Osaka Elegy (1936); The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939); and Sadao Yamanaka 's Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937). Film criticism shared this vitality, with many film journals such as Kinema Junpo and newspapers printing detailed discussions of the cinema of the day, both at home and abroad. A cultured "impressionist" criticism pursued by critics such as Tadashi Iijima , Fuyuhiko Kitagawa , and Matsuo Kishi
1424-406: A type of head, can be made by pulling a string to split the head in two, revealing a red section to represent a head severed by a sword. The preparation of the hair constitutes an art in and of itself. The hair distinguishes the character and can also indicate certain personality traits. The hair is made from human hair, however yak tail can be added to create volume. The ensemble is then fixed on
1513-778: A very high reputation. Japanese films gained popularity in the mid-1920s against foreign films, in part fueled by the popularity of movie stars and a new style of jidaigeki . Directors such as Daisuke Itō and Masahiro Makino made samurai films like A Diary of Chuji's Travels and Roningai featuring rebellious antiheroes in fast-cut fight scenes that were both critically acclaimed and commercial successes. Some stars, such as Tsumasaburo Bando , Kanjūrō Arashi , Chiezō Kataoka , Takako Irie and Utaemon Ichikawa , were inspired by Makino Film Productions and formed their own independent production companies where directors such as Hiroshi Inagaki , Mansaku Itami and Sadao Yamanaka honed their skills. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa created
1602-564: Is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre , founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai ( puppeteers ), the tayū ( chanters ), and shamisen musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as taiko drums will be used. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing
1691-470: Is called jōruri and the Japanese word for puppet (or dolls, generally) is ningyō . It is used in many plays. Bunraku 's history goes as far back as the 16th century, but the origins of its modern form can be traced to around the 1680s. It rose to popularity after the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) began a collaboration with the chanter Takemoto Gidayu (1651–1714), who established
1780-438: Is draped over the front and back of the shoulder board, followed by the attachment of cloth. Carved bamboo is attached to create the hips of the puppet, arms and legs are tied to the body with lengths of rope. There is no torso to the puppet, as it would merely block out the puppeteer's range of movement of the individual limbs. The isho , or costume of the doll is then sewn on to cover over any cloth, wooden or bamboo parts that
1869-416: The shamisen player provide the essential music of the traditional Japanese puppet theater. In most performances only a shamisen player and a chanter perform the music for an act. Harmony between these two musicians determines the quality of their contribution to the performance. The role of the tayū is to express the emotions and the personality of the puppets. The tayū performs not only
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#17328692209901958-763: The Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Rickshaw Man . Kon Ichikawa directed two anti-war dramas: The Burmese Harp (1956), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and Fires on the Plain (1959), along with Enjo (1958), which was adapted from Yukio Mishima 's novel Temple of The Golden Pavilion . Masaki Kobayashi made three films which would collectively become known as The Human Condition Trilogy : No Greater Love (1959), and The Road to Eternity (1959). The trilogy
2047-615: The Hochi Film Award was created. The first winner for Best Film was The Inugamis by Kon Ichikawa . Nagisa Oshima directed In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a film detailing a crime of passion involving Sada Abe set in the 1930s. Controversial for its explicit sexual content, it has never been seen uncensored in Japan. Kinji Fukasaku completed the epic Battles Without Honor and Humanity series of yakuza films. Yoji Yamada introduced
2136-550: The Japanese Communist Party . Independent social realist dramas saw a small and temporary boom amid the wave of sentimental war dramas produced after the end of Occupation. The 1950s are widely considered the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. Three Japanese films from this decade ( Rashomon , Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story ) appeared in the top ten of Sight & Sound ' s critics' and directors' polls for
2225-463: The Pure Film Movement , writers in magazines such as Kinema Record called for a broader use of such cinematic techniques. Some of these critics, such as Norimasa Kaeriyama , went on to put their ideas into practice by directing such films as The Glow of Life (1918), which was one of the first films to use actresses (in this case, Harumi Hanayagi ). There were parallel efforts elsewhere in
2314-694: The best films of all time in 2002. They also appeared in the 2012 polls, with Tokyo Story (1953) dethroning Citizen Kane at the top of the 2012 directors' poll . War movies covering themes previously restricted by SCAP began to be produced, such as Hideo Sekigawa's Listen to the Voices of the Sea (1950), Tadashi Imai 's Himeyuri no Tô ( Tower of the Lilies, 1953), Keisuke Kinoshita 's Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) and Kon Ichikawa 's The Burmese Harp (1956). Works showcasing tragic and sentimental retrospectives of
2403-426: The forty-seven rōnin is also famous in both bunraku and kabuki. Bunraku is an author's theater, as opposed to kabuki, which is a performer's theater. In bunraku , prior to the performance, the chanter holds up the text and bows before it, promising to follow it faithfully. In kabuki, actors insert puns on their names, ad-libs, references to contemporary happenings and other things which deviate from
2492-453: The science fiction films of Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya gained Japanese cinema international praise and made these directors universally renown and highly influential. Some of the Japanese films of this period are now rated some of the greatest of all time : Tokyo Story (1953) ranked number three in Sight & Sound critics' list of the 100 greatest films of all time and also topped
2581-541: The 1920s, there arose so-called tendency films with left-leaning tendencies. Directors Kenji Mizoguchi , Daisuke Itō , Shigeyoshi Suzuki , and Tomu Uchida were prominent examples. In contrast to these commercially produced 35 mm films , the Marxist Proletarian Film League of Japan (Prokino) made works independently in smaller gauges (such as 9.5mm and 16mm ), with more radical intentions. Tendency films suffered from severe censorship heading into
2670-403: The 1930s, and Prokino members were arrested and the movement effectively crushed. Such moves by the government had profound effects on the expression of political dissent in 1930s cinema. Films from this period include: Sakanaya Honda , Jitsuroku Chushingura , Horaijima, Orochi , Maboroshi, Kurutta Ippeji , Jujiro , Kurama Tengu: Kyōfu Jidai , and Kurama Tengu . The 1923 earthquake ,
2759-589: The 1961 classic Yojimbo . Yasujirō Ozu made his final film, An Autumn Afternoon , in 1962. Mikio Naruse directed the wide screen melodrama When a Woman Ascends the Stairs in 1960; his final film was 1967's Scattered Clouds . Kon Ichikawa captured the watershed 1964 Olympics in his three-hour documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965). Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu for "making films that don't make any sense and don't make any money" after his surrealist yakuza flick Branded to Kill (1967). The 1960s were
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2848-673: The 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll of The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time , dethroning Citizen Kane , while Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) was voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC 's 2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries. Japan has also won the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film five times, more than any other Asian country. Japan's Big Four film studios are Toho , Toei , Shochiku and Kadokawa , which are
2937-522: The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The 1980s saw the decline of the major Japanese film studios and their associated chains of cinemas, with major studios Toho and Toei barely staying in business, Shochiku supported almost solely by the Otoko wa tsurai yo films, and Nikkatsu declining even further. Bunraku Bunraku ( 文楽 ) (also known as Ningyō jōruri ( 人形浄瑠璃 ) )
3026-541: The Chinese name Li Xianglan so she could represent Chinese roles in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war she used her official Japanese name and starred in an additional 29 movies. She was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in the 1970s and served for 18 years. Akira Kurosawa made his feature film debut with Sugata Sanshiro in 1943. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, wartime controls and restrictions on
3115-585: The Golden Bear at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival . Immortal Love by Keisuke Kinoshita and Twin Sisters of Kyoto and Portrait of Chieko , both by Noboru Nakamura , also received nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Lost Spring , also by Nakamura, was in competition for the Golden Bear at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival . The 1970s saw
3204-989: The Japanese film industry were abolished, and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) established the Civil Information and Education Section (CIE), which came to manage the industry. All film proposals and screenplays were to be processed and approved by CIE. The script would then be processed by the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), which was under the direct control of American military. Pre-war and wartime films were also subject to review, and over 500 were condemned, with half of them being burned. In addition, Toho and Daiei pre-emptively destroyed films they thought to be incriminating. In November 1945, CIE announced that it would forbid films deemed to be: A major consequence of these restrictions
3293-539: The Monsters! . Although it was edited for its Western release, Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history . Also in 1954, another Kurosawa film, Ikiru was in competition at the 4th Berlin International Film Festival . In 1955, Hiroshi Inagaki won an Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Part I of his Samurai trilogy and in 1958 won
3382-552: The Mountain (1954) and Floating Clouds (1955). Yasujirō Ozu began directing color films beginning with Equinox Flower (1958), and later Good Morning (1959) and Floating Weeds (1958), which was adapted from his earlier silent A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), and was shot by Rashomon and Sansho the Bailiff cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa . The Blue Ribbon Awards were established in 1950. The first winner for Best Film
3471-498: The Osaka tradition tend to be somewhat smaller overall, while the puppets in the Awaji tradition are some of the largest as productions in that region tend to be held outdoors. The heads and hands of traditional puppets are carved by specialists, while the bodies and costumes are often constructed by puppeteers. The heads can be quite mechanically sophisticated; in plays with supernatural themes,
3560-510: The Takemoto puppet theater in Osaka in 1684. Originally, the term bunraku referred only to the particular theater established in 1805 in Osaka , which was named the Bunrakuza after the puppeteering ensemble of Uemura Bunrakuken ( 植村文楽軒 , 1751–1810) , an early 18th-century puppeteer from Awaji , whose efforts revived the flagging fortunes of the traditional puppet theatre. The puppets of
3649-459: The United States, Russia and elsewhere abroad. The Tonda Puppet Troupe ( 冨田人形共遊団 ) of Shiga Prefecture , founded in the 1830s, has toured the United States and Australia on five occasions and has been active in hosting academic programs in Japan for American university students who wish to train in traditional Japanese puppetry. The Imada Puppet Troupe , which has performed in France, Taiwan, and
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3738-653: The United States, as well as the Kuroda Puppet Troupe are located in the city of Iida , in Nagano Prefecture . Both troupes, which trace their histories back more than 300 years, perform frequently and are also active in nurturing a new generation of traditional puppeteers and expanding knowledge of puppetry through training programs at local middle schools and by teaching American university students in summer academic programs at their home theaters. The increase in interest in bunraku puppetry has contributed to
3827-408: The artist does not wish to be seen. Finally, a slit is created in the back of the costume in order for the chief puppeteer to firmly handle the dogushi head stick. Unlike kabuki, which emphasizes the performance of the main actors, bunraku simultaneously demonstrates elements of presentation (directly attempting to invoke a certain response) and representation (trying to express the ideas or
3916-480: The better-known examples of Japanese New Wave filmmaking. Documentary played a crucial role in the New Wave, as directors such as Hani, Kazuo Kuroki , Toshio Matsumoto , and Hiroshi Teshigahara moved from documentary into fiction film, while feature filmmakers like Oshima and Imamura also made documentaries. Shinsuke Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto became the most important documentarists: "two figures [that] tower over
4005-518: The bombing of Tokyo during World War II, and the natural effects of time and Japan's humidity on flammable and unstable nitrate film have resulted in a great dearth of surviving films from this period. Unlike in the West, silent films were still being produced in Japan well into the 1930s; as late as 1938, a third of Japanese films were silent. For instance, Yasujirō Ozu 's An Inn in Tokyo (1935), considered
4094-490: The cause for reform. At Taikatsu, Thomas Kurihara directed films scripted by the novelist Junichiro Tanizaki , who was a strong advocate of film reform. Even Nikkatsu produced reformist films under the direction of Eizō Tanaka . By the mid-1920s, actresses had replaced onnagata and films used more of the devices pioneered by Inoue. Some of the most discussed silent films from Japan are those of Kenji Mizoguchi , whose later works (including Ugetsu / Ugetsu Monogatari ) retain
4183-413: The chest of the puppet through a hole in the back of the torso. The main puppeteer, the omozukai , uses their right hand to control the right hand of the puppet, and uses their left hand to control the puppet's head. The left puppeteer, known as the hidarizukai or sashizukai , depending on the tradition of the troupe, manipulates the left hand of the puppet with their own right hand by means of
4272-405: The children. Kamishibai was often used to tell stories of Buddhist deities and the history of some Buddhist temples. In 1920 it started out as normal storytelling for the children. But in about 1932 it started to lean more to a militaristic viewpoint. Yoshiko Yamaguchi was a very popular actress. She rose to international stardom with 22 wartime movies. The Manchukuo Film Association let her use
4361-557: The cinema audience drop due to the spread of television. Total audience declined from 1.2 billion in 1960 to 0.2 billion in 1980. Film companies refused to hire top actors and directors, not even the companies' production skills to the television industry, thereby making the film companies losing money. Film companies fought back in various ways, such as the bigger budget films of Kadokawa Pictures , or including increasingly sexual or violent content and language which could not be shown on television. The resulting pink film industry became
4450-537: The clothing and the paint. The heads are in effect repainted and prepared before each presentation. There are approximately 80 types of puppet heads broadly classified, and the Digital Library of the Japan Arts Council ( ja ) lists 129 types of puppet heads. Some of these heads have special tricks on them, and by pulling the strings of these tricks, the expression of the puppet can be changed to show that
4539-466: The commercially successful Tora-San series , while also directing other films, notably the popular The Yellow Handkerchief , which won the first Japan Academy Prize for Best Film in 1978. New wave filmmakers Susumu Hani and Shōhei Imamura retreated to documentary work , though Imamura made a dramatic return to feature filmmaking with Vengeance Is Mine (1979). Dodes'ka-den by Akira Kurosawa and Sandakan No. 8 by Kei Kumai were nominated to
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#17328692209904628-431: The costumes soft they are lined with cotton. As the clothing of the puppets wear out or are soiled the clothing is replaced by the puppeteers. The process of dressing or redressing the puppets by the puppeteers is called koshirae . A puppet's skeletal structure is simple. The carved wooden kashira is attached to the head grip, or dogushi , and thrust down an opening out of the puppet's shoulder. Long material
4717-619: The critically and commercially successful Late Spring in 1949. In the later half of the Occupation, the Reverse Course came into effect. Left-wing filmmakers displaced from the major studios in the Red Purge joined those displaced after suppression of the Toho strikes , forming a new independent film movement. Directors such as Fumio Kamei , Tadashi Imai and Satsuo Yamamoto were members of
4806-504: The demographics of the puppeteers in a troupe in order to fill each role. All but the most minor characters require three puppeteers, who perform in full view of the audience, generally wearing black robes. In most traditions, all puppeteers also wear black hoods over their heads, but a few others, including the National Bunraku Theater, leave the main puppeteer unhooded, a style of performance known as dezukai . The shape of
4895-515: The effects the war and subsequent occupation by America in unique and innovative ways. During this decade, the works of Kurosawa, Honda, and Tsuburaya would become the first Japanese films to be widely distributed in foreign theaters. The decade started with Akira Kurosawa 's Rashomon (1950), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 and the Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1952, and marked
4984-549: The emotional aspects for the audience. In bunraku the futo-zao shamisen which is the largest shamisen as well as that of the lowest register, is employed. The instruments most frequently used are flutes, in particular the shakuhachi , the koto and various percussion instruments. The heads of the puppets ( kashira ) are divided into categories according to gender, social class and personality. Certain heads are created for specific roles, others can be employed for several different performances by changing
5073-454: The entrance of Japanese cinema onto the world stage. It was also the breakout role for legendary star Toshiro Mifune . In 1953, Entotsu no mieru basho by Heinosuke Gosho was in competition at the 3rd Berlin International Film Festival . The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and released in 1951. There was also a black-and-white version of this film available. Tokyo File 212 (1951)
5162-1096: The establishment of the first traditional Japanese puppet troupe in North America. Since 2003, the Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe , based at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri , has performed at venues around the United States, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution , as well as in Japan. They have also performed alongside the Imada Puppet Troupe. The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta , Georgia , has an extensive variety of bunraku puppets in its Asian collection. The chanter/singer ( tayū ) and
5251-460: The feelings of the author). In this way attention is given to both visual and musical aspects of the puppets as well as the performance and the text. Every play begins with a short ritual in which the tayū , kneeling behind a small but ornate lectern , reverentially lifts their copy of the script to demonstrate devotion to a faithful rendering of the text. The script is presented at the beginning of each act as well. Despite their complex training,
5340-412: The feet, ten years on the left hand, and ten years on the head of secondary characters before finally developing the requisite skills to move to the manipulation of the head of a main character, as an artistic necessity. However, in a culture like that of Japan, which privileges seniority, the system can also be considered a mechanism to manage competition among artistic egos and provide for a balance among
5429-482: The film industry. In his 1917 film The Captain's Daughter (based on the play by Choji Nakauchi , based in turn on the German film, Gendarm Möbius ), Masao Inoue started using techniques new to the silent film era, such as the close-up and cut back. The Pure Film Movement was central in the development of the gendaigeki and scriptwriting . New studios established around 1920, such as Shochiku and Taikatsu , aided
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#17328692209905518-596: The first Japanese color movie to be released outside Japan, receiving an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for Best Costume Design by Sanzo Wada and an Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival , the first Japanese film to achieve that honour. The year 1954 saw two of Japan's most influential films released. The first was the Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai , about
5607-552: The first to shoot films in Japan. Moving pictures, however, were not an entirely new experience for the Japanese because of their rich tradition of pre-cinematic devices such as gentō ( utsushi-e ) or the magic lantern . The first successful Japanese film in late 1897 showed sights in Tokyo. In 1898, some ghost films were made, such as the Shirō Asano shorts Bake Jizo (Jizo the Spook / 化け地蔵) and Shinin no sosei (Resurrection of
5696-443: The hardships soldiers face everyday in battle. Marching through mud and staying in small unknown towns. In 1942, Kajiro Yamamoto 's film The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya portrayed the attack on Pearl Harbor ; the film made use of special effects directed by Eiji Tsuburaya , including a miniature scale model of Pearl Harbor itself. Kamishibai (紙芝居) or paper theater was a popular form of street entertainment, especially for
5785-436: The human has turned into a yōkai (strange apparition) or an onryō (vengeful spirit) by activating the trick. For example, by pulling a string, the gabu , a type of head, can instantly split a beautiful woman's mouth open up to her ears and grow fangs, her eyes change to a large golden color and she grows golden horns. It is possible to represent the transformation of a woman into hannya (female demon) in
5874-546: The landscape of Japanese documentary." Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964) won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival , and was nominated for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film Oscars . Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (1965) also picked up the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Bushido, Samurai Saga by Tadashi Imai won
5963-408: The left side is referred to as the shimote (stage right). The puppets are made to appear and then leave the stage through the small black curtains. The blinded screens are just above these small curtains, and they have special blinds made from bamboo so that the audience cannot see inside. The joshiki-maku is a large, low hanging curtain hanging off of a ledge called the san-n-tesuri . It
6052-430: The next performers on the stage. In the area between upstage and downstage, there are three stage positions, known as "railings" ( tesuri ). Located in the area behind the second partition is often called the pit and it is where the puppeteers stand in order to carry out the puppets' lifelike movements. This stage looks from an angle of the audience, the right side is referred to as the kamite (stage left), while
6141-412: The next scene. The shamisen used in bunraku is slightly larger than other kinds of shamisen and has a different sound, lower in pitch and with a fuller tone. Bunraku shares many themes with kabuki . In fact, many plays were adapted for performance both by actors in kabuki and by puppet troupes in bunraku . Bunraku is particularly noted for lovers' suicide plays. The story of
6230-497: The night with them. The whole environment that gave birth to these puppet shows is reflected in the themes. The yuka is the auxiliary stage upon which the gidayu-bushi is performed. It juts out into the audience area at the front right area of the seats. Upon this auxiliary stage there is a special rotating platform. It is here that the chanter and the shamisen player make their appearance, and, when they are finished, it turns once more, bringing them backstage and placing
6319-406: The oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011, Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of US$ 2.338 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897. During the 1950s, a period dubbed the "Golden Age of Japanese cinema", the jidaigeki films of Akira Kurosawa as well as
6408-859: The only members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ). The annual Japan Academy Film Prize hosted by the Nippon Academy-shō Association is considered to be the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards . The kinetoscope , first shown commercially by Thomas Edison in the United States in 1894, was first shown in Japan in November 1896. The Vitascope and the Lumière Brothers ' Cinematograph were first presented in Japan in early 1897, by businessmen such as Inabata Katsutaro . Lumière cameramen were
6497-509: The peak years of the Japanese New Wave movement, which began in the 1950s and continued through the early 1970s. Nagisa Oshima , Kaneto Shindo , Masahiro Shinoda , Susumu Hani and Shohei Imamura emerged as major filmmakers during the decade. Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth , Night and Fog in Japan and Death by Hanging , along with Shindo's Onibaba , Hani's Kanojo to kare and Imamura's The Insect Woman , became some of
6586-606: The policies of the Occupation , such as agricultural reform and the organization of labor unions , and promoted the peaceful redevelopment of Japan and the rights of individuals . Significant movies among them are, Setsuko Hara appeared in Akira Kurosawa 's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Kōzaburō Yoshimura 's A Ball at the Anjo House (1947), Tadashi Imai 's Aoi sanmyaku (1949), etc. It gained national popularity as
6675-419: The puppeteers originated from a very destitute background. The kugutsu-mawashi were itinerants and as a result were treated as outcasts by the educated, richer class of Japanese society at the time. As a form of entertainment, the men would operate small hand puppets and put on miniature theatre performances, while women were often skilled in dancing and magic tricks which they used to tempt travelers to spend
6764-487: The puppeteers' hoods also varies, depending on the school to which the puppeteer belongs. Usually a single chanter recites all the characters' parts, altering his vocal pitch and style in order to portray the various characters in a scene. Occasionally multiple chanters are used. The chanters sit next to the shamisen player. Some traditional puppet theaters have a revolving platform for the chanter and shamisen player, which rotates to bring replacement musicians in for
6853-521: The screen and narrated silent movies. They were descendants of kabuki jōruri, kōdan storytellers, theater barkers and other forms of oral storytelling. Benshi could be accompanied by music like silent films from cinema of the West . With the advent of sound in the early 1930s, the benshi gradually declined. In 1908, Shōzō Makino , considered the pioneering director of Japanese film, began his influential career with Honnōji gassen (本能寺合戦), produced for Yokota Shōkai . Shōzō recruited Matsunosuke Onoe ,
6942-591: The script. The most famous bunraku playwright was Chikamatsu Monzaemon . With more than 100 plays to his credit, he is sometimes called the Shakespeare of Japan. Bunraku companies, performers, and puppet makers have been designated "Living National Treasures" under Japan's program for preserving its culture. Osaka is the home of the government-supported troupe at National Bunraku Theatre . The theater offers five or more shows every year, each running for two to three weeks in Osaka before moving to Tokyo for
7031-589: The stepping stone for many young independent filmmakers. The seventies also saw the start of the " idol eiga ", films starring young "idols" , who would bring in audiences due to their fame and popularity. Toshiya Fujita made the revenge film Lady Snowblood in 1973. In the same year, Yoshishige Yoshida made the film Coup d'État , a portrait of Ikki Kita , the leader of the Japanese coup of February 1936. Its experimental cinematography and mise-en-scène, as well as its avant-garde score by Toshi Ichiyanagi , garnered it wide critical acclaim within Japan. In 1976,
7120-419: The voice of each of the characters, but also serves as the narrator of the play. Located to the side of the stage the tayū physically demonstrates facial expressions of each character while performing their respective voices. While performing multiple characters simultaneously the tayū facilitates the distinction between characters by exaggerating their emotions and voices. This is also done to maximize
7209-565: The war experience became a public phenomenon. Other films produced include Battleship Yamato (1953) and Eagle of the Pacific (1953). Under these circumstances, movies such as Emperor Meiji and the Russo-Japanese War (明治天皇と日露大戦争, 1957), where Kanjūrō Arashi played Emperor Meiji , also appeared. It was a situation that was unthinkable before the war, the commercialization of the Emperor who
7298-478: The weak economy, unemployment became widespread in Japan, and the cinema industry suffered. During this period, when Japan was expanding its empire, the Japanese government saw cinema as a propaganda tool to show the glory and invincibility of the Empire of Japan . Thus, many films from this period depict patriotic and militaristic themes. However unlike most wartime films the Japanese tended to tell it like it is, showing
7387-526: Was Until We Meet Again by Tadashi Imai . The number of films produced, and the cinema audience reached a peak in the 1960s. Most films were shown in double bills, with one half of the bill being a "program picture" or B movie . A typical program picture was shot in four weeks. The demand for these program pictures in quantity meant the growth of film series such as The Hoodlum Soldier or Akumyo . The huge level of activity of 1960s Japanese cinema also resulted in many classics. Akira Kurosawa directed
7476-516: Was completed in 1961, with A Soldier's Prayer . Kenji Mizoguchi, who died in 1956, ended his career with a series of masterpieces including The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). He won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Ugetsu . Mizoguchi's films often deal with the tragedies inflicted on women by Japanese society. Mikio Naruse made Repast (1950), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Sound of
7565-613: Was dominant, but opposed by leftist critics such as Akira Iwasaki and Genjū Sasa who sought an ideological critique of films. The 1930s also saw increased government involvement in cinema, which was symbolized by the passing of the Film Law , which gave the state more authority over the film industry, in 1939. The government encouraged some forms of cinema, producing propaganda films and promoting documentary films (also called bunka eiga or "culture films"), with important documentaries being made by directors such as Fumio Kamei . Realism
7654-569: Was in favor; film theorists such as Taihei Imamura and Heiichi Sugiyama advocated for documentary or realist drama, while directors such as Hiroshi Shimizu and Tomotaka Tasaka produced fiction films that were strongly realistic in style. Films reinforced the importance of traditional Japanese values against the rise of the Westernised modern girl , a character epitomised by Shizue Tatsuta in Ozu's 1930 film Young Lady . Because of World War II and
7743-521: Was supposed to be sacred and inviolable. The period after the American Occupation led to a rise in diversity in movie distribution thanks to the increased output and popularity of the film studios of Toho , Daiei , Shochiku , Nikkatsu , and Toei . This period gave rise to the six great artists of Japanese cinema: Masaki Kobayashi , Akira Kurosawa , Ishirō Honda , Eiji Tsuburaya , Kenji Mizoguchi , and Yasujirō Ozu . Each director dealt with
7832-475: Was that the production of jidaigeki films, especially those involving samurai , became effectively impossible. A notable case of censorship was of the war film Escape at Dawn , written by Akira Kurosawa and Senkichi Taniguchi , which was re-written over a dozen times at the request of CIE, largely erasing the original content of the story. On the other hand, the CIE favored the production of films that reflected
7921-420: Was the first American feature film to be shot entirely in Japan. The lead roles were played by Florence Marly and Robert Peyton . It featured the geisha Ichimaru in a short cameo. Suzuki Ikuzo's Tonichi Enterprises Company co-produced the film. Gate of Hell , a 1953 film by Teinosuke Kinugasa , was the first movie that filmed using Eastmancolor film, Gate of Hell was both Daiei 's first color film and
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