All language subtitles for 100 Years of Japanese Cinema [Nagisa.Oshima,.1994]

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.