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Orizuru Osen
, also titled ''The Downfall of Osen'', is a 1935 Japanese silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Isuzu Yamada. It is based on a short story by Kyōka Izumi. Plot While waiting for a delayed train at a train station, Sōkichi Hata, a medical professor, overhears other travelers talking about a courtesan in their midst. He reminisces his past when he was about to commit suicide and saved by Osen, a young woman acting as a decoy for a gang of traffickers led by Kumazawa. Osen convinces Kumazawa to take Sōkichi in as a servant, later learning that Sōkichi came to Tokyo to study medicine but failed due to his shortage of money. Outraged both at the gang's misdeeds and their repeated maltreatment of Sōkichi, she finally gives them away to the police and decides to help Sōkichi to take up his studies. When Sōkichi and Osen, who sees her solely as an elder sister, run out of money, she turns to prostitution and theft to help him finish his exams. After Osen is arrested by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenji Mizoguchi
was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include '' The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), '' The Life of Oharu'' (1952), '' Ugetsu'' (1953), and '' Sansho the Bailiff'' (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema. Biography Early years Mizoguchi was born in Hongō, Tokyo, as the second of three children, to Zentaro Miguchi, a roofing carpenter, and his wife Masa. The family's background was relatively humble until the father's failed business venture of selling raincoats to the Japanese troops during the Russo-Japanese War. The family was forced to move to the downtown district of Asakusa and gave Mizoguchi's older s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masaichi Nagata
was a Japanese businessman and served as president of Daiei Film. The self-proclaimed creator of Gamera, he produced the kaiju's second film ''Gamera vs. Barugon'', with the remainder of the Gamera#Films, Showa ''Gamera'' films produced instead by his son Hidemasa Nagata. Either Masaichi or Hideo Matsuyama (:ja:松山英夫, jp), the inventor of the "Silver Week", was also the inventor of the advertising slogan "Golden Week (Japan), Golden Week", and the first president of the Pacific League. His achievements to contribute in the golden era of Japanese film industries granted a title "Father of the film industry" in Japan, while his well-known nicknames "Nagata Trumpet" and "Fixer of political world" were given due to his boasting behaviors and connections with political circles. Nagata was also known for his friendship with Walt Disney where Disney called him a "brother", and had associated in Disney-related businesses such as distributions of Disney films by Daiei Film, publicat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyōka Izumi
, known by his pen name , was a Japanese novelist, writer and kabuki playwright who was active during the prewar period. Kyōka's writing differed greatly from that of the naturalist writers who dominated the literary scene at the time. Many of Kyōka's works are surrealist critiques of society. He is best known for a characteristic brand of Romanticism preferring tales of the supernatural heavily influenced by works of the earlier Edo period in Japanese arts and letters, which he tempered with his own personal vision of aesthetics and art in the modern age. He is also considered one of the supreme stylists in modern Japanese literature, and the difficulty and richness of his prose has been frequently noted by fellow authors and critics. Like Natsume Sōseki and other Japanese authors with pen names, Kyōka is usually known by his pen name rather than his real given name. Life Before Tokyo Kyōka was born Izumi Kyōtarō on November 4, 1873 in the Shitashinmachi section o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isuzu Yamada
was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Biography Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a geisha. Under her mother's influence, she began learning nagauta and Japanese traditional dance from the age of six. Yamada debuted as a film actress in 1930 at age twelve, appearing in the Nikkatsu film ''Tsurugi wo koete'' opposite Denjirō Ōkōchi. She soon became one of Nikkatsu's top actresses, but it was her portrayals of strong-willed modern girls in Kenji Mizoguchi's '' Osaka Elegy'' and '' Sisters of the Gion'' in 1936 at the new Daiichi Eiga studio that earned her popularity and critical acclaim. Moving to Shinkō Kinema and then to Toho, she became a star with Mikio Naruse's ''Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro'' (1938), appearing at the side of Kazuo Hasegawa. During World War II, she established the theatre group Shin Engi-za together with Hasegawa, and ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shochiku
is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and established the Kamata Film Studio. Currently, it is considered one of Japan's Big Four film studios and is the oldest among the Big Four. Shochiku is a member of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ). It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all, anime films produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks). Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada. It has also produced films by highly regarded independent and "loner" directors such as Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Taiwanese New Wave d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eiji Nakano
was a Japanese film actor. Career Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Nakano attended Hōsei University, but left before graduating. When he was playing for the Nikkatsu amateur baseball team, he was scouted as an actor and made his debut in 1925 in ''Daichi wa hohoemu''. While becoming one of Japan's main romantic leads, Nakano moved from Nikkatsu to Teikoku Kinema to Shinkō Kinema to Daiichi Eiga and other studios, and starred in films directed by such masters as Kenji Mizoguchi, Tomu Uchida, Daisuke Itō, and Tomotaka Tasaka, among others. In 1941, he formed his own production company, Nakano Eiji Productions, and directed the film ''Shōgun''. After World War II, he ceased appearing in movies until the 1970s, when he appeared in films such as Kaneto Shindo's documentary on Kenji Mizoguchi, '' Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director''. Selected filmography *''Daichi wa hohoemu'' (1925) *''Orizuru Osen , also titled ''The Downfall of Osen'', is a 1935 Japanese silent film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinema Journal
The ''Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' (formerly ''Cinema Journal'' and ''The Journal of the Society of Cinematologists'') is the official academic journal of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies). It covers film studies, television studies, media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, film and media history, and moving image studies and is published by the University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is a university press that is a part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earn .... History The journal began publishing in 1961 as ''The Journal of the Society of Cinematologists''—publishing research from the organization that would become SCS and then SCMS. In 1966, it evolved into ''Cinema Journal''. It remained so named until October 2018 when it became ''The Journal of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society For Cinema And Media Studies
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies) is an organization of professors and scholars. Its home office is at the University of Oklahoma, but it has members throughout the world. SCMS holds an annual conference and publishes the '' Journal of Cinema and Media Studies'' (formerly ''Cinema Journal''), a periodical featuring articles on media from a critical (i.e., not empirical) perspective. This includes, but is not limited to, film studies, television studies, media studies, visual arts, cultural studies, film and media history, and moving image studies. Its stated goals are: Along with the University Film and Video Association, it is one of the principal academic organizations for studying media. History SCMS was founded in 1959 as the Society of Cinematologists. It became the Society for Cinema Studies in 1969. It added "media" to its name in 2002 to account for the work of its members outside of the film studies discipline. Conf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benshi
were Japanese performers who provided live narrator, narration for silent films (both Japanese films and Western world, Western films). ''Benshi'' are sometimes called or . Role The earliest films available for public display were produced by Western studios, portraying brief scenes of everyday life, often less than a minute long. The first were thus hired to provide added value, greater value for the high ticket prices charged by theaters relative to other public entertainment, while also giving technical and cultural context to the audience. The operation of the projector itself would be described before the showing, and then explanations of Western culture would accompany the film with the standing to the side of the screen. This commentary was as much part of the theater-going experience as the film itself. In one instance, a was able to avoid government censorship of The Kiss (1896 film), ''The Kiss'' by describing kissing in Western culture to be as casual a greeting as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midori Sawato
is a Japanese benshi or katsuben (silent film narrator). Life Originally from Tokyo, Midori Sawato graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Hosei University. She first decided she wanted to become a benshi in 1972, when she saw the silent film '' The Water Magician'' by Kenji Mizoguchi. She was particularly impressed with the performance as benshi of the man who would become her teacher, Shunsui Matsuda. After studying under Matsuda, Sawato made her debut in 1973. She is an active benshi who has garnered high praise through her wide variety of activities and performances in Japan and overseas. Of the ten benshi working in Japan (), Sawato is considered the most famous. Her repertoire of over 500 films includes genres as varied as contemporary cinema, historical movies and western films, for which she provides well-formed interpretations of the work. She has received many awards, including the Award for Excellence in the field of Dramatic Performance at the Agency for Cultur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1935 Films
The following is an overview of 1935 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. The cinema releases of 1935 were highly representative of the early Golden Age period of Hollywood. This period was punctuated by performances from Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and the first teaming of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. A significant number of productions also originated in the UK film industry. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1935 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events * February 22 – '' The Little Colonel'' premieres starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, featuring a famous stair dance with Hollywood's first interracial dance couple * February 23 – Gene Autry stars as himself as the Singing Cowboy in the serial '' The Phantom Empire''. He would later be voted the number one Western star from 1937 to 1942. * Februar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Films Directed By Kenji Mizoguchi
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since the 1930s, synchronized with sound and (less commonly) other sensory stimulations. Etymology and alternative terms The name "film" originally referred to the thin layer of photochemical emulsion on the celluloid strip that used to be the actual medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion-picture, including "picture", "picture show", "moving picture", "photoplay", and "flick". The most common term in the United States is "movie", while in Europe, "film" is preferred. Archaic terms include "animated pictures" and "animated photography". "Flick" is, in general a slang term, first recorded in 1926. It originates in the verb flicker, owing to the flickering appearance of early films. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
