Original subtitles

In 1992, shortly before the centennial anniversary of cinema,

a surviving part of A Diary of Chuji's Travels was discovered in the archives.

This film has long been thought lost.

The film's director, Daisuke Ito, died at the age of 82,

certain that his masterpiece had been lost without any chance of recovery.

Cinema reached Japan very quickly, merely one year after its invention.

The Japanese started to shoot their own cinema originally relying...

on Kabuki theater traditions.

Shozo Makino is called the first Japanese film director, and he was the first one...

to employ live action shooting for filming Kabuki performances.

Finally, a new trend boosted cinema out of the theater realm.

Daisuke Ito was Kaoru Osanai's pupil.

On September 1, 1923, a strong earthquake struck Tokyo and the Kanto region.

The sentimental melodramas which sprang in the wake of the disaster...

were a great success in the grief-stricken city.

Daisuke Ito scripted one of these melodramas, Boatman's Song.

A Diary of Chuji's Travels was at the heart of young Ito's dreams and tribulations.

For many years before, he had been a scriptwriter-for-hire,

unable to choose independently the subjects of his work.

It was in this way that the Japanese cinema produced its first independent film-maker.

Around the same time, Teinosuke Kinugasa, a director of the same generation as Ito...

who started as a female part performer, completed two motion pictures.

His work displayed a strong European influence.

The subsequent period was marked by the so-called "biased films".

It was an era of strained economy, working class unrest,

aggressively protesting farmers and a strict repression of revolt by the government.

The "biased film" genre attempted to illustrate...

the contradictions and hardships typical of life in a capitalist society.

However, censorship and the complications preceding the war on China...

caused a rapid change in the goals pursued by this type of film-making.

What do you think, whose father is more important, mine or yours?

Yours is more important.

No, I think your father is more important.

As a result, Japanese cinema finally succeeded in departing from the constraints...

imposed by stringent theatrical conventions or ideological agenda, and started...

to explore objectively the very foundation of Japanese society: personal life within a family.

This was the dawn of the First Golden Age of Japanese Cinema.

Father, why aren't you eating?

Well, how is it going, brother? I thought you were already in Tokyo.

You're always so good-looking. Sachi-chan, how is it going?

Sakiyaki, right? It looks delicious!

Why haven't you called me?

It's so nice here. Home is the best place on earth!

I am so happy! I haven't eaten at home for so long!

Father... you must be very happy now!

You've found a job, brother is almost done with his studies.

Now he is almost ready for adult life.

There is still Sachi-chan. Sachi-chan, how's your exam?

Can I have some rice? What's wrong?

Why isn't anyone answering?

There is no place in our family for criminals like you.

What are you saying? - I'm saying you're a criminal!

I can't believe it... - Shut up!

What are you doing in such a place?

Just taking a stroll... I am not sure what I'm doing.

You must be ill.

You're right, I'm ill. Crime is a terrible illness.

Doctor... - Yes?

Can a girl be cured of crime?

I have no idea.

Kenji Mizoguchi completed Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion in 1936.

At this time a few young officers attempted a coup d'etat, the notorious February 26th incident.

Even though their attempt failed, it has certainly contributed to the rise...

of the Japanese militarism.

It's interesting that the Directors Guild of Japan...

was formed a mere day before the attempted coup d'etat.

Well, am I surprised! You're always so early!

It seemed that the Guild became a success very quickly.

One year after the Guild was formed, Tomu Uchida filmed Endless Marching.

It was based on an idea of Yasujiro Ozu, even though they worked at different studios.

The film relates the story of an office worker, who serves...

a single company with selfless dedication for his entire life.

The same year, the Japanese government launched a full-scale invasion in China.

This event marked the beginning of "endless marching" towards self-destruction.

The same year, Sadao Yamanaka filmed his last film, Humanity and Paper Balloons.

This work was permeated with death-related themes.

Thereafter, he was drafted in the army and sent to China, where he...

died of an illness one year later, when he was only 28.

God... it's a double suicide!

Hurry! Out of the way!

I wonder why the master isn't coming.

Hey you! Be a nice boy, call the master!

Hey! Where are you going?

I want to find the master.

All right... run.

This photograph was made when sergeant Ozu, drafted at that time,

was visiting first class private Yamanaka, shortly before Yamanaka's death.

During this period, Japanese filmmakers continued to create...

inspired works - despite of the deplorable toll inflicted by the war, the government,

the military operations... And this affected not just individual artists...

but also cinema as a whole.

The situation worsened in 1939, when the Law on Cinema was enacted.

It was an implementation of the Nazi rules for cinema practices.

Within a year, films that did not conform with the governmental guidelines,

like Fumio Kamei's documentaries, were not distributed anymore.

But, as comedy has always been playing a role in Japanese cinema,

the parodies directed by Kajiro Yamamoto with the comic actor known as Enoken...

helped the nation to persevere through this dark period.

In December 1941, Japan joined World War II and turned into an enemy...

for the US, the UK and most of the other countries.

It's ironic that this movie meant to call for victory...

and to inspire fighting, was filmed by Yamamoto, a well-known liberal.

But instead of inciting the population for further military endeavors, this epic work...

related the personal struggle of a young man to pursue genuinely Japanese sensibilities...

and to become a perfect warrior. It has rather stimulated the interest for special effects...

which ultimately resulted in the after-war Godzilla series.

Get up everyone! Get up everyone!

Go!

Attack! Attack!

And, speaking of tears, here is a film which has likely caused more sympathetic sobs...

than any other movie shot during the war.

It's a story of a rickshaw man and his attachment to an army officer's widow and her son.

The censors were outraged that an ordinary rickshaw man could dare to

dream of an officer's widow.

The film was cut in pieces, but still moved the hearts of the people.

This was the first time I saw him being so loud and excited.

I think he has never been so excited in his life.

Perhaps he is developing a new personal trait.

I'm really grateful to you.

I am not sure if I deserve your gratitude, but, if he is happy, so am I.

I think I should go.

Matsugoro-san! Don't forget your prize!

I don't need it. Perhaps it will be of use for your son, when he grows up. Good bye!

But...

No-no... I don't need it...

October 21, 1943. The farewell ceremony for drafted students proceeds under a cold rain.

The draft deferral for students has been discontinued.

They march with rifles, still dressed in their student uniforms.

And the mud they are marching through seems to foretell their imminent fate.

It seemed that the unstoppable slipping of the country towards self-destruction...

was finally terminated by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Among more than 140.000 victims was Keiko Sonoi,

the actress who played the charming widow in The Rickshaw Man.

She was 32, when the candle of her life, and the lives of nine more members...

of the theater troupe Sakuragun were blown out by the attack of Hiroshima.

Since he started to work as an assistant to Kajiro Yamamoto,

it's not surprising that Akira Kurosawa's first film after the war,

No Regrets for Our Youth, was filled with indictment of the government policy...

as well as hopes for a better life in the postwar Japan.

You've got something, right? A secret...

Tell me, please.

I've gotta know it. It must be really beautiful.

What's wrong with you? You're taking me for some dreamer?

Please don't treat me like this anymore...

Look at the past without regrets.

Look at the past without regrets...

In the same year, Keisuke Kinoshita, another director who started to work during the war,

turned to very similar subjects in his Morning for the Osone Family.

In those years, censorship was still enforced, but the occupation forces...

already overpowered the Japanese government and military, and the country faced...

social unrest caused by the discontent of workers.

Nevertheless, the directors who started working during the war,

succeeded in liberating the formerly repressed creative energy...

and producing a series of genuine masterpieces.

The prize received by Akira Kurosawa in Venice for his Rashomon served as an encouragement...

for the elder Japanese directors at the time when their mastery reached its peak.

Few would contest the opinion that this period was the Second Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

Tomiko, who are you to ignore the school rules?

Miss Takioka! Why don't you obey your teacher? Stand up!

What is it that you want me to obey?

I have the right to hate what I hate!

How should the school care whether I go home for the holidays right away?

What did I do wrong? I am not a child anymore!

You've broken the dormitory rule!

It's a stupid rule!

Perhaps it should be changed! You always talk about the honor and traditions of the school.

Rather than be concerned about what the others would think, perhaps you should first...

start to treat the people around you with a little more respect!

Who is it? Who is applauding?

Is it all you can say? Very good...

Then, I know for sure what kind of student you are.

Mr. Hirato, please go back to your office.

In the end, we can't make her obey us.

What pushed Yoshi Izushi to suicide...

I saw this film in early spring of 1954.

I hope you'll forgive me this sudden change to first person narration.

That year, I became a part of Japanese cinema myself.

The truth is, I was not making films yet back then, even though I passed an exam...

to become an assistant director at Shochiku Ofuna studio, but I wasn't sure

whether that really was what I wanted to do.

At that time, I didn't see filmmaking as a serious occupation.

But I made my decision after I saw this film.

"Look what this film can do!" That's what I thought.

"But what is it?"

Six years later I got an answer.

At the time when crowds of students and workers besieged the National Diet and

protested against the extension of the Japan-US security treaty, my second film was released.

It was called The Cruel Story of Youth.

I cannot swim!

Can you calm down?

Certainly not!

Then you can't get out of water.

Why wouldn't you calm down?

Why did you come at all today?

Interested in men...

curiosity, sex...

I can satisfy you!

I felt that the Japanese films up to that point were overflown with the subjects of...

national suffering during the war, poverty and the feudal nature of relations...

within the Japanese family and society.

For common people, it was usual to consider themselves as victims at that time,

but I thought it was very important for the directors to avoid this line of thought.

Is it not that film directors must be looking for ways towards liberation?

Even if it's difficult or painful...

The term Japanese New Wave was first employed for me and my colleagues,

all of which started at the same studio in 1960.

I've always detested this tag, borrowed from the French movement whose name was similar.

But the "new wave" movement quickly receded, when, following the defeat of the protests...

against the Japan-US treaty extension, the studio pulled my film Night and Fog in Japan

out of distribution. It was partly based on my personal experience...

as a student in 1950s. The film's distribution stopped 4 days after its initial release.

I left the studio and set up my own film production company.

Though, for a while, I did not have financial resources necessary to film,

I though that the general tendencies in filmmaking were working in my favor.

One reason was that, even before my decision, some directors working in large studios...

began to display an approach to film production...

completely different from the one that used to have currency before.

Another reason was that cinema made in inde- pendent studios was taking some new directions.

Kaneto Shindo completed Naked Island under completely unusual filming conditions.

Neither Susumu Hani nor Hiroshi Teshigahara experienced work in large studios.

Basically, everything was pointing towards a beginning of a new era, when cinema will be...

made by individuals and not companies.

Nobuko? Nobuko! Are you done?

Father, I need your help again.

Nobuko doesn't drink almost at all, it's all swollen... It's painful.

Father, I must find a job...

Before and during the war, sex was a taboo subject in Japanese cinema.

Even kisses were not allowed on-screen.

In the middle of the 60s, the interest for the topic of sex had become universal.

But intercourse is deeply private.

How can it be truthfully depicted by anyone other than...

an independently working artist?

The same period witnessed proliferation of companies working in the area...

of low-budget erotic films.

Known as "pink films", these movies attracted a rather large number of viewers.

On the other hand, the movie theater attendance peaked in 1958,

and started to decline significantly thereafter.

It was a shock for everyone, when Tetsuji Takechi, a well-known critic and director...

working in the traditional Japanese theater, suddenly decided to switch to pink films.

His film Black Snow, whose backdrop was...

a US military base, was confiscated by the police,

and the director was put through an obscenity trial.

What are you doing there?

Hanging around at the cinema isn't going to make anything happen.

The screen's completely blank.

Everybody here is just as sick of waiting around as you are.

You wonder if I know any jokes...

"If the end of the world comes tomorrow,"

"I will plant an apple tree."

Shuji Terayama was known as...

a poet, playwright, director and artistic leader of a theater troupe, a novelist,

a short film director, and even an occasional horse-racing broker.

His first feature film was financed by a tiny distribution company...

called Art Theatre Guild, as well as Terayama's own film company.

Other films produced along these lines started to appear in 1968.

The first of them was my own Death by Hanging.

The director's company contributed 5 million yen.

Art Theatre Guild contributed the same amount.

Even though, with such a low budget of 10 million yen, or $30000,

it seemed difficult to make a movie, surprisingly many film directors...

working in different genres, decided to pursue this approach to funding. Those were:

Directors who left their studios.

Documentary film directors.

And TV directors.

Of course, we turned the low budgets into our own weapons, and used...

this concept to explore new subjects and new approaches to filming.

Thus, we could extend the boundaries not only of Japanese cinema, but of cinema in general.

At the same time, in 1968, Seijun Suzuki, who was fighting for some stylized beauty...

in the commercial movies made at Nikkatsu, was dismissed from his studio work,

because his film Branded to Kill was found too "esoteric".

The expulsion of Suzuki provoked a wave of protests among other filmmakers.

Police go home! We didn't do anything wrong!

Go! Go home! Police go home!

Though the development of Japanese documentary cinema has been very stable due to the work...

of such directors as Susumu Hani, Toshio Matsumoto, Kazuo Kuroki and Noriaki Tsuchimoto,

a few documentary films made in 1968, caused a great shock to the Japanese society.

One was Summer in Narita by Shinsuke Ogawa. The film showed the protest demonstrations...

by farmers and students against the construction of the new Tokyo airport.

Another one, Tsuchimoto's Pre-Partisan, was centered on the leader...

of a student revolt at the University of Kyoto.

Last will: "I am the only one who can continue the Sakurada line."

"By killing myself now, I destroy the Sakurada family."

Masuo, you'll be late for your ship. You should go.

You're in charge of the funeral services in Tokyo. I'll stay here...

Ritsuko... you intend to die here, don't you?

Yes... but I can take care of everything by myself.

Fool!

You think I'll be able to leave knowing that?

Then you intend to stay and witness my death?

When I released The Ceremony in 1971, Eizo Hori, a critic of the Asahi newspaper,

wrote that it was a "premature conclusion on the post-war democracy".

Overall, he criticized me for excessive pessimism.

Nevertheless, a year earlier, Yukio Mishima committed suicide.

And, the next year, an ultra-left student sect known as the Red Army...

executed twelve of their own members during a meeting...

which they chose to call "the conclusion".

Afterwards, the remaining members confronted the police and were captured.

The broadcast about the fight attained the highest rating in Japanese TV history.

Since then, the young generations have consistently failed to play any

role of importance in the contemporary historical developments in Japan.

The first genre responsible for taking Japanese cinema through the tumultuous 70s...

was gangster cinema, often depicting cruel street-fighting...

of the young yakuza bandits.

Tetsu-chan...

Look what has been done for you...

Are you happy now? No...

Me neither.

What are you doing?

Hirono, I hope you understand what it means!

You know, Mr. Yamamori... I've still got some bullets left.

The second was the series about Tora-san, which continues to this day.

Yoji Yamada, who joined Shochiku the same year I did, was making these films...

about a travelling salesman since 1969.

Without any permanent address, Tora-san periodically returns to his "home":

an overpopulated district of Tokyo, where the locals welcome him as a family member.

This endless saga brings to the fore such topics as being homesick...

and nostalgic sentiments for family and society.

But where is Tora?

I haven't heard anything about him, ever since we parted in Otaru.

You were in Otaru together?

Otaru? Is it in Hokkaido? Yeah, he must be really far!

Idiot! He must have come back with us. - You're right.

Does he not know how worried we are?

Hey! Has Lily been here? - Yeah.

When? When? When?!

In the beginning of the last month, I think.

And what about the last couple of days? - No.

Tora-chan!

Hey! Don't scare me like this!

Did I scare you? It's you who pops out of nowhere all of a sudden!

Welcome back. We're happy to see you back home.

We've been so worried.

There were also the erotic Nikkatsu films. They referred to these movies as...

"roman porno", and that's what they were shooting.

However, in 1972, the Japanese authorities confiscated four roman porno films...

and charged nine of the filmmakers.

But, despite of the prohibitions - or perhaps, encouraged by the prohibitions - the directors

continued to create splendid works.

I think that the 60s and the beginning of the 70s can be called the Third Golden Age...

of Japanese cinema. In this period, various gifted filmmakers,

which were born during the war, but grew up after it, had an opportunity to overcome...

numerous difficulties and attain a forceful creative expression.

Does it hurt? - Yes, it does.

And like this, does it hurt? - Yes!

By developing the film in France,

I could get around the prohibitions on depicting sexuality enforced in Japan.

The Japanese authorities were outraged and confiscated the book based on the screenplay,

as well as still shots from the film, according to the Japanese obscenity laws.

However, just as with Black Snow and the roman porno movies, all the individuals involved...

were ultimately acquitted.

Nevertheless, when the film itself was imported, it was censored by the customs,

and it has not been screened in Japan in its complete form.

I'll do anything you want.

Sorry that I wasn't with you these three days.

I've thought extensively about the unique nature of the Japanese war film.

This genre would only depict Japanese characters, but never their enemies.

I thought that it was very essential, since wars are only possible...

when there is someone to fight with.

In Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, for the first time,

I depicted the Japanese and their enemies on par.

Stay back! Stay back!

After that, I left for Paris and filmed Max, Mon Amour.

Even though that film was made by Oshima, I am not sure if it should be called Japanese.

Overall, I have the feeling that the whole concept of national affiliation...

is rather meaningless for a motion picture.

But permit me to turn away from the first person narration...

and become an objective reporter once again.

You know, I want to quit school.

What? What are you talking about?

Go on with your studies. You should not quit!

It's a good school. And, after that, you can go to a state-run university.

How can you not understand such simple things?

Well, I thought a bit...

You shouldn't think. I am here to think!

That's why they beat people with baseball bats, because parents say such things and...

Oh, that's what it is? So, try to beat me, you little idiot!

What are you doing?

What the hell are you doing?

What are you doing? Stop behaving like this.

Are you alright? How can you beat my husband?!

Hey, a cockroach just went in there! - Where is it?

Shinichi! - What?

A dinner scene. 4 family members and a private tutor, all sitting at one side of the table.

We cannot see the kind of dinner table so common in the films of Ozu and Mizoguchi.

Since the beginning of Japanese cinema, many film-makers glorified, criticized,

or even tried to overthrow its main subjects: home and family.

But these notions no longer exist in the form they used to exist.

In modern Japan, one can only play with whatever is left of them,

as Yoshimitsu Morita has shown in his film.

Death is a promise of life.

But we haven't been promised a sacred death, which gives a sacred life.

Therefore, I will show you my death...

so that everyone can live.

Come... and take a close look!

It is death!

The sense of isolation and disappointment among the young people who feel they don't have

anything in common with each other and the epoch, has been wonderfully portrayed by Shinji Somai

through his unique approach to long takes.

All the directors which arose after 1980 were born after the war,

and never worked for the studios.

Some practiced filming while still at school...

using 8mm and 16mm cameras.

Some were assistant directors for roman porno movies.

Some started in TV commercials.

Furthermore, many actors, authors and musicians also tried their hand in film direction.

Consciously or not, all of them depict contemporary Japanese society...

as suffering from the lack of communication and failing human relationships.

And they create interesting, contemporary works through their critique of the modern condition.

In his Twinkle, Joji Matsuoka approaches from a new angle...

an unusual triangular relation of an alcoholic, her gay husband and his lover,

as they are trying to create a new type of conjugal living,

different from the traditional notion of home.

You kill people just like this?

If you're so calm killing people, you must also be calm thinking of your own death.

You're strong. I really like strong people.

If I were so strong, I wouldn't have carried a gun with me.

But you probably shoot just like this.

I shoot because I'm afraid.

But you're not afraid of death, right?

If you're too afraid of death, in the end, you start looking for it.

What are you talking about?

In addition to his highly successful TV career, the comic actor Beat Takeshi,

who had an episodic role in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,

also started to make movies under his real name Takeshi Kitano.

Before, he depicted contemporary society through glimpses of compulsive cruelty.

But, in Sonatine, he created a calm and light-hearted image of a middle-aged gangster,

who is prone to violence and unable to find his place among humans,

and who ultimately escapes in his own dream world.

In animation and documentary filmmaking, new artists have also reached...

some highly innovative forms of expression.

But the main change observed in the contemporary Japanese cinema,

is the appearance of foreign people living in Japan.

A long time ago, there was a huge war.

Our fatherland was reduced to slavery, we were treated like cattle.

My mother came to Japan like you, to support her family.

She crossed a raging sea...

Did she swim?

It was a ship! A ship.

I am not sure about back then, but now she's got a lot of money.

My mother worked a lot.

My father was killed by Japanese soldiers, and my elder brother died of...

Among these so-called "residents", the Korean population of Japan comprises...

around three quarters of a million. It's the largest non-Japanese group in the country.

One of those "residents", Yoichi Sai, filmed All Under the Moon, a bold depiction...

of the uniqueness and universality of the Korean experience in Japan.

Because the number of foreigners in Japan grows at a remarkable rate, these changes

will quite certainly produce a strong impact upon Japanese cinema.

Koni, only I can understand you. Listen.

A long time ago, there was a huge war...

I don't want to listen to your stories anymore!

Where'd you like to go? - To the Philippines. Manila, please.

Thank you very much for using my services. I am your driver. My name is Ga.

The first hundred years of Japanese cinema have been the period of its youth.

It will certainly stay young for the next hundred years.

And in these hundred years, the Japanese film will free itself from the spell of Japanese-ness,

and will come abloom as pure cinema.