NFAJ: 90 Years of Toho: A History of Modern and Innovative Films (Part 2)

The Anniversary Celebration Gets Musical

Venue(s): National Film Archive of Japan
Oct. 4 to Dec. 25, 2022. English subbed films are on Oct. 4, 7, and 13. Look for with "with English subtitles" or English titles for E-subs or check below. https://www.nfaj.go.jp/exhibition/toho202209/#section1-2
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: www.nfaj.go.jp/exhibition/toho202209/
Theater website: www.nfaj.go.jp/english/visit/access/
Tariff: General: ¥520, Student/Senior: ¥310, Under 16: ¥100
Advance tickets: From Sept. 27 , 10 am. ¥520: https://www.nfaj.go.jp/exhibition/toho202209/#section1-3 (all reserved seats) for the following week's (Tuesday-Sunday) screenings

Title: NFAJ 東宝の 90年: モダンと革新の映画史 (2) (NFAJ Toho no 90 Nen: Modern to Kakumei no Eigashi (2))

The National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ) continues to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the nation’s largest film studio, Toho, with a second package of greatest hits. The latest focus is the musical, and one of the films in the lineup features English subtitles: Tipsy Life (aka Musical Comedy Intoxicated Life). Directed by Sotoji Kimura in 1933, it is usually regarded as Japan’s first true musical comedy, and it’s definitely worth a look.

While Toho is best known overseas as the home of Godzilla, Japan’s largest studio also produced and distributed the films of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masaki Kobayashi, Mikio Naruse and the anime films of Studio Ghibli, among many others. So it should be no surprise that they were also involved in this pioneering production, the first made in house by Toho’s precursor, the Photographic Chemical Laboratory (P.C.L.).

Musical Comedy Intoxicated Life
音楽喜劇 ほろよひ人生 (Ongaku Kigeki Horoyoi Jinsei)
Director: Sotoji Kimura (木村荘十二)
Japanese with English subtitles | 77 min
Oct. 4, 2022 (Tue) 15:00
Oct, 7, 2022 (Fri) 19:20
Oct, 13, 2022 (Thu) 19:00

In a tie-up with Dainippon Breweries, Ltd., P.C.L. built Japan's first full-scale talkie studio, and its first exclusive director was Sotoji Kimura. (His father had actually founded the brewery.) No surprisingly Tipsy Life takes place partially in a beer hall, with ample opportunities to showcase products from Dainippon, and features Sachiko Chiba (who would become P.C.L.’s first bona fide star and go on to appear in such films as Mikio Naruse’s Wife Be Like a Rose) plays a cheerful, modern girl who has a relationship with a music student while he’s trying to create a hit song.

National Film Archive of Japan