GERMAN FILMS

Two Totalitarian Regimes, Two films

As I mentioned before, foreign film market in 1930’s Japan was very lively and energetic, even in the eve of Pearl Harbor attack. Especially German and Austrian cinema were quite popular, not just because Japan had a political alliance with the Nazi regime, but also because people simply loved sweet scent of Hapsburg Empire and of German clinical efficiency. As I read through several literatures and contemporary periodicals, I find many of their observations on certain films, aesthetics, film techniques or directors were radically different from our views today. One of such examples is the case for Karl Ritter. Karl …

HOLLYWOOD FILMS / JAPANESE FILMS

A Little Leaflet from 90 Years Ago

A few days ago, I received the package from the bookstore specialized in vintage movie magazines. I won several issues of Kinema Junpo from 1920’s and ’30s from the online auction. Kinema Junpo is one of the oldest periodical publication on movies, dating back to 1919, and still in business. One of the issues in the package was dated March 11, 1924. It’s only 28 pages, including covers, but to me, it contains a wealth of information about the movie experience almost 90 years ago. Between its pages, I found a small sheet of paper. It is printed on both …

 
DOCUMENTARY FILMS / JAPANESE FILMS

Tokyo Olympic

Well, it’s final. 2020 Olympic will be held in Tokyo. Now, it’s buzzing everywhere; from internet to TV to coffee shops: who will direct the opening ceremony? It will be very hard to top London, they say. Hayao Miyazaki? Well, he announced his retirement from animation, but not from anything else. How about Anno? Well, Katsuhiro Otomo must be the man, since his AKIRA predicted 2020 Tokyo Olympic, in dystopian universe.

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