THE YOUTH OF JAPANESE CINEMA

Rediscovering Kyoto Cinema’s Innovators in Tokyo

Venue: Theater Shinjuku
CROSSROADS: November 12 (Sun), 2023; The series runs on selected days during October 21 to November 23.
Official website: ttcg.jp/theatre_shinjuku/movie/1015500.html
Theater website: ttcg.jp/theatre_shinjuku/access/
Tariff:  Screenings with live performance: ¥1,900; General screenings: Adults: ¥1,600, Senior: ¥1,300, College students/TCG members: ¥1,200, High school students and under: ¥1,000
Talk event: TBA. Please check the theater’s official website.

Title: 時代劇が前衛だった/牧野省三、衣笠貞之助、伊藤大輔、伊丹万作 (Jidaigeki ga Zenei datta/Shozo Makino, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Daisuke Ito, Mansaku Itami)

Commemorating the publication of film historian Shigeki Koga’s new book, "Jidai-geki ga avant-garde ga araku: Shozo Makino, Tienosuke Kinugasa, Daisuke Ito, Mansaku Itami, Sadao Yamanaka” (When Period Dramas Were the Avant-Garde/The Youth of Japanese Cinema: Shozo Makino, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Daisuke Ito, Mansaku Itami, Sadao Yamanaka), Theater Shinjuku is showcasing a lineup of 13 films that Koga highlights in his writing, including one with English intertitles: Tenosuke Kinugasa’s Crossroads (1928). If you happen to be in the area, be sure to drop by.

Koga’s book discusses how and why the films made in Kyoto from the early years of the 20^th century through the 1930s were so innovative, focusing on the five filmmakers of the title and based on newly discovered films, documents, and testimonies of those who lived during the period. “In compiling this book,” Koga writes, “I realized that this story is unmistakably a coming-of-age ensemble piece. The characters were young, bold, and ambitious. Their youth, audacity, and ambition are all reflected in their films. So, first of all, I would like you to look closely at the screen. Their films are filled with a spirit of experimentation and adventure that would astonish even today's young independent filmmakers.

“The avant-garde city of Kyoto is the cradle of Japanese cinema. Katsutaro Inahata previewed the first cinematograph there, and Shozo Makino shot the first dramatic film, Honnoji Kassen. Studios opened up one after another, and the Great Kanto Earthquake attracted many talented people [who left after the Tokyo area’s destruction in 1923]. The energy and experimental spirit of the diverse filmmakers who gathered in Kyoto in the mid-1920s opened up new horizons for Japanese cinema, leading to the golden age of the 1930s. It was truly a time of youth for Japanese cinema.”

Crossroads (1928)

November 12 (Sun), 2023
Crossroads/十字路
1928｜Japan｜65min
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa (衣笠貞之助)

Kinugasa’s Crossroads (1928) was one of the first Japanese films to be shown in Europe and also screened in the US (as Slums of Tokyo), winning acclaim for its German expressionistic techniques (Kinugasa’s 1926 A Page of Madness is the masterpiece that endures today). It tells the story of a young man who is obsessed with a courtesan, and during a fight over her, seems to kill his rival as well as to be blinded himself. His sister, with whom he shares an apartment, is then tricked by a succession of men who claim to be able to help clear/cure her brother — but only for hefty fees. The sister debases herself to earn the money, and even greater tragedy then ensues.

Koga will appear at a talk show with a benshi, Ichiro Kataoka (Japanese only) on November 12, and there will be some screenings with a live piano performance by musician Ayumi Kamiya. For details, please check the theater’s official website.

Theater Shinjuku