How to evaluate the development of Japanese films

The budding history of Japanese films (1896 ~ 19 18) The "movie mirror" invented by Edison was introduced to Japan from 1896, while the real films were introduced to Japan from 1897 by Inami Katsutaro and Saburo Noi. In the past two years, projectors and films have been introduced and shown all over the country, which is called mobile photography. This name has been used all the time 19 18.

1899 Japanese native films, mainly documentary short films. Lightning Robber brought a wide range of news topics to the screen at that time and was considered as the earliest feature film to cater to fashion. Yokoyama Yunping became the first film actor in Japan.

1903 The earliest official cinema in Japan was the electric hall in Asakusa, Tokyo, which was established in 1903. The earliest studio was founded in 1908 by Ji Ze Commercial Company in Muping, Tokyo. Battle of Beno Temple (1908, directed by Makino Shozo) is the first Japanese silent film in which the narrator stands by the screen and tells the story in a stage cavity. Therefore, Makino Shozo is called "the father of Japanese movies", but this kind of movies are just comic books.

19 12 Japanese motion picture co., ltd. was established to shoot a series of films starring Matsunosuke Onoe. Matsunosuke was originally a kabuki performer on tour. He was discovered by Makino Shozo in 1909. After his first work, Chessboard Loyalty, came out, he became the most popular martial arts actor and was called "Little Asun". 19 14 years, Natural Color Film Co., Ltd. (referred to as Skyfire) was established. At first, it was aimed at making color movies, but because there were only two colors, it was only possible to make ordinary black-and-white movies, or to compete with Skyfire by making "old-fashioned" movies. At that time, the Japanese studio was already filming a "new drama" with modern themes.

The time course of Japanese silent film era (19 18 ~1931year)1918 The Film Art Association, which was presided over by Guishan Jiaozheng, launched the pure film drama movement. Kameyama 19 19's Glory of Life and Girl in the Deep Mountain are experimental works of pure film and drama movement. Almost all of these two films were shot on location, allowing the actors to perform in the natural environment, thus liberating the films from the unnatural narrow space. The association advocates the use of actresses to abolish the traditional practice of pretending to be women; Insert the least subtitles in the film to explain the story and abolish the narration; Use close-ups, scene changes and other film techniques; Through editing, the film can form a complete film work. Although the practice of the above two films is not very mature, they have taken the first step and been accepted by more filmmakers. 1920, Japan established Taisho Film Photography and Projection Company and Matsuzaka Company. Huo Da hired Junichiro Tanizaki as a literary consultant and recruited Kisaburo Kurihara (Thomas) from Hollywood, who directed Amateur Club written by Junichiro Tanizaki (1920). Matsuzaka asked Kosakai for guidance, and Minoru Murata directed the production of Soul on the Road (192 1), which is regarded as a milestone in Japanese film history. Matsutake also set up a studio in Putian, and adopted the Hollywood production method, and established a director-centered shooting system. This innovation prompted Nishino to catch up, and produced Human Suffering directed by Kenzo Suzuki (1923) and Fog Pier directed by Kenji Mizoguchi (1923). Since then, the "old drama" film has been renamed as "times drama" and the "new drama" film has been renamed as "modern drama".

1923 1 In September, a strong earthquake occurred in kanto region with Tokyo as the center, and the shooting base in Tokyo was on the verge of collapse and had to be moved to Kyoto. Due to the social unrest and economic depression after the earthquake, an escapist film with a historical theme called Knife, Gun and halberd Nihilism came into being. At this time, the Soviet Union's film montage theory and German expressionist films had a certain influence in Japan, and Japan also made some avant-garde films that emphasized visual sense. The movie "Revival after the Earthquake" started with the movie "Caged Birds" (1924). Its theme song is full of sadness, despair and self-abandonment, reflecting the social and psychological state at that time, so it is very popular. On the other hand, the trilogy "Journey of Loyalty and Righteousness" (1928) directed by Daisuke It? and starring Denjir? ?k?chi is the representative work of historical films at its peak. The representative film of modern theme is Yutaka Abe's Woman in the Road (1926), and Heinosuke Gosho's Bride in the Country is a lyric film with Japanese national characteristics. At that time, other excellent films were Yasujirō Ozu's Although I Graduated from University (1929), although I fell into Sun Shan (1930) and Nostalgia (1930), which were called "townsfolk movies".

Stage characteristics

During this period, progressive filmmakers, represented by Sasuke Genji and Akira Iwasaki, established the Japanese Proletarian Film Alliance and filmed a number of short documentaries against imperialist and capitalist exploitation, such as Proletarian News Bulletin, Children, even Lany, May Day and Noda Strike. As far as the influence is concerned, some film companies have introduced feature films with progressive tendency, which are called "inclined films", such as Servant of Daisuke It? (1927), Murder and Sword (1929), Living Doll of Tomu Uchida (1929) and Revenge. Due to the government's increased censorship of films, this tendency of films was stifled after only two or three years.

Japanese movies with sound

Time course (193 1 year ~ 1945)

Starting point time

Japan's talking movies started in 193 1 year, but all the screens were talking until 1935. The first real talking movie was Wife and Wife directed by Heinosuke Gosho (193 1 year). Since then, films that were considered masterpieces in the early days of talking movies include Tian Julong's Spring and the Girl, Hiroshi Inagaki's Journey to the Blue Sky, Yasujiro Shimazu's Madonna in the Storm and Teinosuke Kinugasa's Loyalist Spectrum. In The Book of Loyalists, Teinosuke Kinugasa applied Eisenstein's theory of "audio-visual counterpoint" and successfully adopted the montage of pictures and sounds.

Dingli company

Due to the appearance of talking movies, the competition among the big film companies founded by Dongbao, Matsuzaka and 1942 in accordance with the "new film system" has formed a confrontational situation.

During the first five or six years of this period, Japanese film art gained the most "classic times". Among them, "Elegy of Lang Hua" and "Sisters in Brothel" belong to "female films" and are regarded as the pinnacle of realistic works in this period. The film "Tu" is the first realistic peasant film to expose the feudal exploitation system.

The Second World War

1937 After Japan launched the war of aggression against China, the rulers strengthened their control over films, forbidding the production of films with critical social tendencies and encouraging the production of so-called "national policy films". Some artists who don't want to go with the flow are committed to putting pure literary works on the screen, expressing their conscience in the name of masterpieces and avoiding strict censorship. 1938 reached its peak.

Before and after this, the representative works that have been put on the screen include Life Theater by Ozaki Shiro and Miserable Life by Ishikawa Dasan, People Who Live and Can Live by Yamamoto (directed by Heinosuke Gosho, 1934) and Stones by the Road (directed by Tian Julong, 1938), and An Tian's Prince.

Film legal system

With the promulgation of the Film Law in 1939, the establishment of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau in 1940, and the outbreak of the Pacific War in194/,almost all films were limited to the clamour of war. Up to 1944, five scouts (1938), land and soldiers (1939), biography of the tank captain living in the west (1940), and offshore battle in Malaya, Hawaii (6544

In the cloudy years, there are very few artists who can always adhere to their will and style in their creation. Yasujirō Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi are regarded as the best among them. Ozu did not act according to the wishes of the military, and made two films, Brother and Sister Hata (194 1 year) and When Father was alive (1942), which reflected his unique wandering style and ran counter to advocating war. The former reflects the imminent collapse of the family system, while the latter is the eternal theme of Ozu's works, that is, the problem of father and son. Kenji Mizoguchi, on the other hand, consciously fled to kabuki and other classical arts, thus avoiding the real war problems, and filmed The Tale of Broken Chrysanthemum (1939), The Wandering Girl (1940) and The Famous Artists (194 1). In addition, Hiroshi Inagaki's "A Song's Life" (1943) depicts the life at the bottom of society and is very popular with the audience. These works bring a fresh breath to the suffocating Japanese movies.

Film Association

In order to carry out the war of aggression, the Japanese government stepped up the work of news documentaries (then called cultural films), and established the official Japanese Film Society (Niying for short) at 194 1, and filmed war documentaries such as Magic in the Air. However, a group of documentary filmmakers have always insisted on shooting science and education films, especially the art film club led by Einosuke Omura, such as Chin Hung Kao, Shui Mu of Tomoya, Kenzo Ueno, Tomoto Tomoto and others, who chose social themes to create and filmed Snow Country by Ishimoto (1939) and Records of Nanny by Hiroki and Shui Mu (65439).

In the dark 1940s of Japanese movies, young director Akira Kurosawa made his debut with Pose Saburo (194 1), and Keisuke Kinoshita made his debut with Busy Dock (1943), breaking through various unfavorable conditions.