100 Years of Japanese Cinema (百年日本映画)

In 1992, shortly before the centennial anniversary of cinema,

a surviving part of A Diary of Chuji's Travels was discovered in the archives.

This film has long been thought lost.

The film's director, Daisuke Ito, died at the age of 82,

certain that his masterpiece had been lost without any chance of recovery.

Cinema reached Japan very quickly, merely one year after its invention.

The Japanese started to shoot their own cinema originally relying...

on Kabuki theater traditions.

Shozo Makino is called the first Japanese film director, and he was the first one...

to employ live action shooting for filming Kabuki performances.

Finally, a new trend boosted cinema out of the theater realm.

Daisuke Ito was Kaoru Osanai's pupil.

On September 1, 1923, a strong earthquake struck Tokyo and the Kanto region.

The sentimental melodramas which sprang in the wake of the disaster...

were a great success in the grief-stricken city.

Daisuke Ito scripted one of these melodramas, Boatman's Song.

A Diary of Chuji's Travels was at the heart of young Ito's dreams and tribulations.

For many years before, he had been a scriptwriter-for-hire,

unable to choose independently the subjects of his work.

It was in this way that the Japanese cinema produced its first independent film-maker.

Around the same time, Teinosuke Kinugasa, a director of the same generation as Ito...

who started as a female part performer, completed two motion pictures.

His work displayed a strong European influence.

The subsequent period was marked by the so-called "biased films".

It was an era of strained economy, working class unrest,

aggressively protesting farmers and a strict repression of revolt by the government.

The "biased film" genre attempted to illustrate...

the contradictions and hardships typical of life in a capitalist society.

However, censorship and the complications preceding the war on China...

caused a rapid change in the goals pursued by this type of film-making.

What do you think, whose father is more important, mine or yours?

Yours is more important.

No, I think your father is more important.

As a result, Japanese cinema finally succeeded in departing from the constraints...

imposed by stringent theatrical conventions or ideological agenda, and started...

to explore objectively the very foundation of Japanese society: personal life within a family.

This was the dawn of the First Golden Age of Japanese Cinema.

Father, why aren't you eating?

Well, how is it going, brother? I thought you were already in Tokyo.

You're always so good-looking. Sachi-chan, how is it going?

Sakiyaki, right? It looks delicious!

Why haven't you called me?

It's so nice here. Home is the best place on earth!

I am so happy! I haven't eaten at home for so long!

Father... you must be very happy now!

You've found a job, brother is almost done with his studies.

Now he is almost ready for adult life.

There is still Sachi-chan. Sachi-chan, how's your exam?

Can I have some rice? What's wrong?

Why isn't anyone answering?

There is no place in our family for criminals like you.

What are you saying? - I'm saying you're a criminal!

I can't believe it... - Shut up!

What are you doing in such a place?

Just taking a stroll... I am not sure what I'm doing.

You must be ill.

You're right, I'm ill. Crime is a terrible illness.

Doctor... - Yes?

Can a girl be cured of crime?

I have no idea.

Kenji Mizoguchi completed Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion in 1936.

At this time a few young officers attempted a coup d'etat, the notorious February 26th incident.

Even though their attempt failed, it has certainly contributed to the rise...

of the Japanese militarism.

It's interesting that the Directors Guild of Japan...

was formed a mere day before the attempted coup d'etat.

Well, am I surprised! You're always so early!

It seemed that the Guild became a success very quickly.

One year after the Guild was formed, Tomu Uchida filmed Endless Marching.

It was based on an idea of Yasujiro Ozu, even though they worked at different studios.

The film relates the story of an office worker, who serves...

a single company with selfless dedication for his entire life.

The same year, the Japanese government launched a full-scale invasion in China.

This event marked the beginning of "endless marching" towards self-destruction.

The same year, Sadao Yamanaka filmed his last film, Humanity and Paper Balloons.

This work was permeated with death-related themes.

Thereafter, he was drafted in the army and sent to China, where he...

died of an illness one year later, when he was only 28.

God... it's a double suicide!

Hurry! Out of the way!

I wonder why the master isn't coming.

Hey you! Be a nice boy, call the master!

Hey! Where are you going?

I want to find the master.

All right... run.

This photograph was made when sergeant Ozu, drafted at that time,

was visiting first class private Yamanaka, shortly before Yamanaka's death.

During this period, Japanese filmmakers continued to create...

inspired works - despite of the deplorable toll inflicted by the war, the government,

the military operations... And this affected not just individual artists...

but also cinema as a whole.

The situation worsened in 1939, when the Law on Cinema was enacted.

It was an implementation of the Nazi rules for cinema practices.

Within a year, films that did not conform with the governmental guidelines,

like Fumio Kamei's documentaries, were not distributed anymore.

But, as comedy has always been playing a role in Japanese cinema,

the parodies directed by Kajiro Yamamoto with the comic actor known as Enoken...

helped the nation to persevere through this dark period.

In December 1941, Japan joined World War II and turned into an enemy...

for the US, the UK and most of the other countries.

It's ironic that this movie meant to call for victory...

and to inspire fighting, was filmed by Yamamoto, a well-known liberal.

But instead of inciting the population for further military endeavors, this epic work...

related the personal struggle of a young man to pursue genuinely Japanese sensibilities...

and to become a perfect warrior. It has rather stimulated the interest for special effects...

which ultimately resulted in the after-war Godzilla series.

Get up everyone! Get up everyone!

Go!

Attack! Attack!

And, speaking of tears, here is a film which has likely caused more sympathetic sobs...

than any other movie shot during the war.

It's a story of a rickshaw man and his attachment to an army officer's widow and her son.

The censors were outraged that an ordinary rickshaw man could dare to

dream of an officer's widow.

The film was cut in pieces, but still moved the hearts of the people.

This was the first time I saw him being so loud and excited.

I think he has never been so excited in his life.

Perhaps he is developing a new personal trait.

I'm really grateful to you.

I am not sure if I deserve your gratitude, but, if he is happy, so am I.

I think I should go.

Matsugoro-san! Don't forget your prize!

I don't need it. Perhaps it will be of use for your son, when he grows up. Good bye!

But...

No-no... I don't need it...

October 21, 1943. The farewell ceremony for drafted students proceeds under a cold rain.

The draft deferral for students has been discontinued.

They march with rifles, still dressed in their student uniforms.

And the mud they are marching through seems to foretell their imminent fate.

It seemed that the unstoppable slipping of the country towards self-destruction...

was finally terminated by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Among more than 140.000 victims was Keiko Sonoi,

the actress who played the charming widow in The Rickshaw Man.

She was 32, when the candle of her life, and the lives of nine more members...

of the theater troupe Sakuragun were blown out by the attack of Hiroshima.

Since he started to work as an assistant to Kajiro Yamamoto,

it's not surprising that Akira Kurosawa's first film after the war,

No Regrets for Our Youth, was filled with indictment of the government policy...

as well as hopes for a better life in the postwar Japan.

You've got something, right? A secret...

Tell me, please.

I've gotta know it. It must be really beautiful.

What's wrong with you? You're taking me for some dreamer?

Please don't treat me like this anymore...

Look at the past without regrets.

Look at the past without regrets...

In the same year, Keisuke Kinoshita, another director who started to work during the war,

turned to very similar subjects in his Morning for the Osone Family.

In those years, censorship was still enforced, but the occupation forces...

already overpowered the Japanese government and military, and the country faced...

social unrest caused by the discontent of workers.

Nevertheless, the directors who started working during the war,

succeeded in liberating the formerly repressed creative energy...

and producing a series of genuine masterpieces.

The prize received by Akira Kurosawa in Venice for his Rashomon served as an encouragement...

for the elder Japanese directors at the time when their mastery reached its peak.

Few would contest the opinion that this period was the Second Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

Tomiko, who are you to ignore the school rules?

Miss Takioka! Why don't you obey your teacher? Stand up!

What is it that you want me to obey?

I have the right to hate what I hate!

How should the school care whether I go home for the holidays right away?

What did I do wrong? I am not a child anymore!

You've broken the dormitory rule!

It's a stupid rule!

Perhaps it should be changed! You always talk about the honor and traditions of the school.

Rather than be concerned about what the others would think, perhaps you should first...

start to treat the people around you with a little more respect!

Who is it? Who is applauding?

Is it all you can say? Very good...

Then, I know for sure what kind of student you are.

Mr. Hirato, please go back to your office.

In the end, we can't make her obey us.

What pushed Yoshi Izushi to suicide...

I saw this film in early spring of 1954.

I hope you'll forgive me this sudden change to first person narration.

That year, I became a part of Japanese cinema myself.

The truth is, I was not making films yet back then, even though I passed an exam...

to become an assistant director at Shochiku Ofuna studio, but I wasn't sure

whether that really was what I wanted to do.

At that time, I didn't see filmmaking as a serious occupation.

But I made my decision after I saw this film.

"Look what this film can do!" That's what I thought.

"But what is it?"

Six years later I got an answer.

At the time when crowds of students and workers besieged the National Diet and

protested against the extension of the Japan-US security treaty, my second film was released.

It was called The Cruel Story of Youth.

I cannot swim!

Can you calm down?

Certainly not!

Then you can't get out of water.

Why wouldn't you calm down?

Why did you come at all today?

Interested in men...

curiosity, sex...

I can satisfy you!

I felt that the Japanese films up to that point were overflown with the subjects of...

national suffering during the war, poverty and the feudal nature of relations...

within the Japanese family and society.