8/3/2019 Japan-china Film Report

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Research on Japanese international film connections has tended to emphasise East-West film exchanges. The few articles on Japanese films in Asia have also tended tolook predominantly at the relation between Japanese cinema and Hong Kong cinema.This project aimed to break new ground by looking more at Japanese film connectionswith mainland China (PRC). Despite a film quota that made it very difficult to import

Chinese films as well as complaints made by Taiwanese and American organisations,my initial observations suggest there was still significant interest in film exchanges

between Japan and China. Due to the aforementioned problems, however, I assumethese were more in the form magazine reports, non-commercial screenings and filmfestivals. As well as trying to find empirical information about these exchanges I aminterested in what audiences in Japan would have made about Chinese films andlikewise if there is any information in Japanese on Chinese audiences responses toJapanese cinema.

Having researched online databases (particularly from the Kawakita MemorialFilm Institute) it is evident that despite the ‘self-restraint’ of the major Japanesefilm studios in foregoing film trade with the there were actually a great number of articles in film journals such as Eiga Hyoron , Eiga Geijutsu and Kinema Junpoanalysing Chinese films and the PRC film industry. As well as collecting andanalysing this material I am also interested to see if I can find information trade union

publications about PRC cinema as this was one of the only conduits for PRC films to be imported to Japan as part of “non-profit” screenings.

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I think I have gained a good understanding of the dynamics of Japan-China filmrelations during the 1950s and early 1960s. The following are particular points of

interest1) In the project proposal I perhaps over-estimated the role of Japanese unions inleading China-Japan film relations. Unions certainly funded some early Japaneseindependent films, some of which went to China, but these were made primarily for the Japanese market. The earliest Chinese film event in Japan, a screening of Red

Flag on a Green Hill , was also held in the union-friendly venue of the Yomiuri Hall.The driving force for the event was, however, the Chinese-Japanese FriendshipAssociation. Even after the Great Leap Forward, the organisation organised smallfestivals of Chinese films in Tokyo and Osaka in the early 1960s. There are severalarticles contextualising the films screened at these festivals in Japanese film journals2) The only genuine commercial Chinese release in Japan was a film called White

Haired Woman (1950) handled by a company specialising in Soviet films. It screenedin 170 theatres in 1957 although these were second or third run cinemas. This wasreleased using a `bonus` license under Japan`s quota system. One likely reason for choosing this film is that it employed Japanese film workers (remaining in China after the evacuation of Manchuria) in editing and art production.3) There are several examples of Japanese directors travelling to China includingKinoshita Keisuke (for a Japanese Film Festival in China in 1956) and the left-wingYamamura Satsuo as well as a small number of critics/writers. The Chinese also sentan official industry delegation to Japan in 1962 to liase with the major studios.4) Chinese audiences were said (by officials) to have liked Japanese films that fittedChinese ideological themes. As well as left-wing Japanese independent films, ascreening of Kurosawa`s Ikiru was also popular because of its anti-bureaucracymessage. Kinoshita’s Twenty-Four Eyes was criticised for its attitude to Japan’swartime activities.

I am due to attend the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference in New Orleans in March 2011 (the most prestigious conference in Film Studies) whereI can use some of this material in a paper on the Japanese Film Quota System. I amalso preparing a book proposal for my Ph.D. thesis on Japanese Film Trade where Ican also use this material.There is perhaps more room for further research into the roles of particular individuals

in relevant film companies or an organisation such as the Sino-Japanese FriendshipAssociation. I hope to contact the latter to see if they have any archive material. Onthe Chinese side it would also be useful to further clarify the role of Japanese

production staff (left behind after Japan`s withdrawal from Shanghai/Manchuria) insome of the Chinese films screened in Japan.