JAPANESE FILMS

Analysis of “There Was A Father”, 00:00:00 – 00:05:59

Only six minutes of the film. But this first six minutes are already filled with wealth of ideas and images. First, the condition of the print. It is quite apparent that the grayscale of the images are “narrowed”. In another words, the dynamic range has been lost. Black has faded, while white lost its luster. I believe that the surviving material is positive 16mm reduction print. I don’t know if the loss of image quality occurred when this reduction/duplication process was performed, or it has degraded over the course of time. The modern image processing technologies can manipulate images quite …

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JAPANESE FILMS

Analysis of “There Was A Father”, prologue

1. It was more than 20 years ago. Back then, the chances to encounter Ozu’s works were relatively limited. The VHS catalogs or theatrical screenings usually consisted of works from 50’s and 60’s, the later masterpieces. So when I found “There Was A Father” was scheduled on late-night TV, I was quite excited. It was probably around ’86 or ’87. It made quite an impression on me. The print was in a miserable condition, but through scratches, specs, damages, flickering and shaky frames, the ethereal world lost to us emerged. Since then, I was quite captivated by the film. It …

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DOCUMENTARY FILMS / JAPANESE FILMS

The Exhausted Soldier

Propaganda films are, in principle, very clear about what message it should convey. One of the most notable example, TRIUMPH OF THE WILL is very efficient in transmitting its message. Images are designed to portray Nazi regime to be the liberator of German race, the symbol of national rebirth. Absurd, sure, but in 1934 Germany, an average citizen never knew the horrors to come. TRIUMPH is a very unique material. It is a rather dull document of the Nazi party political rally, propaganda to every frame. In Japan during WWII, any media, newspaper, literature, art, theater, film was heavily censored …