Michael Koresky explains the word ‘flunky’ from the title of Naruse’s silent film as ‘a loose translation of koshiben, which denotes a low-wage earner who brings his lunch to work’. I think this is excellent translation to capture the essence of the film in a single word. To help us understand how an insurance agent Okabe would have lived back in 1931, I explore a little bit more.
I posted some photographs of directors and one young actress from prewar Japanese cinema magazines in the past weeks. Today, I post three daring photographs of Yasujiro Ozu, to commemorate his 110th anniversary. The first photograph is from 1932. This was taken during the shooting of I WAS BORN, BUT … (1932), the film I consider the best among his extant silent works. According to the caption, these two kids had fallen ill during the shooting of the film previous year, and the production had to be stopped. Now, apparently these rascals were feeling better (is that a cigarette?) and …
As I was leafing through the pages of Felix Moeller’s ‘The Film Minister: Goebbels and the Cinema in the “Third Reich”‘, I stumbled upon a name I had hardly ever heard: Helmut Käutner. Typing his name in several search boxes and clicking numerous links, I soon found enough about him. Käutner started his directorial career in 1939, though his first film, KITTY UND DIE WELTKONFERENZ, was banned in Germany for its supposedly pro-British views. He continued to work throughout the war years, eight films in total. After the war, he directed some notable films such as DIE LETZE BRÜCKE (1954), …