Nippon (Liebe Und Leidenshaft In Japan)
Estratti Da / Materials From: Tempei Jidai-Kaito Samimaro (1928); T. It.: L’epoca Tempei Shamimaro; T. Ing.: The Time Of Tempei Shamimaro; Int.: Chojiro Hayashi, Akiko Chihaya; Kagaribi (1928); Regia: Tetsuroku Hoshi; T. It.: Fiaccole; T. Ing.: Torches; Daikotai Rodoshahen (1930); Regia: Kiyohiko Ushihara; T. It.: Vita Degli Operai Nella Metropoli; T. Ing.: The Great Metropolis: Chapter On Labour / The Life Of Workers In The Big City; Int.: Denmei Suzuki, Kinuyo Tanaka; 35mm. L.: 1142 M. D.: 40′ A 24 F/S.
Film Notes
“The German version of the portmanteau film Nippon is by Carl Koch, better known as a close collaborator with his wife, cut- out animation virtuoso Lotte Reiniger, and also as an assistant director to Jean Renoir. Shown in Berlin in 1932, Koch’s Nippon consists of cut versions (each twenty minutes) of three Japanese silent films – two 1928 jidai geki, Tempei Jidai-Kaito Samimaro (The Time of the Tempei Shamimaro) by Eichi Koishi and Kagaribi (Torches) by Tetsuroku Hoshi, as well as Daitokai rodoshahen (The Life of Workers in the Big City) a gendai geki by Kiyohiko Ushihara with the starry duo Denmei Suzuki and Kinuyo Tanaka, the Japanese equivalents of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor. This antology is structured as a historical panorama, from the early Tempei era via the Tokugawa period up to the present. In Claude Faurère’s French version of Nippon, the second section, Kagaribi, is missing (…)”.
Mariann Lewinsky, Le giornate del cinema muto 2001. XX edi- tion, edited by Catherine Surowiec, Sacile-Udine, 2001