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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2001 |
|
| Film Title |
KANTSUBAKI |
| Alternative Title 1 |
[WINTER CAMELLIA] |
| Alternative Title 2 |
[CAMELIA INVERNALE] |
| Alternative Title 3 |
|
| Country |
Japan |
| Release Date |
1921 |
| Production Co. |
Kokkatsu |
| Director |
Hatanaka, Ryoha |
| Format |
|
Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
16 |
| |
|
|
| Footage |
|
Time |
| 5162 ft. |
|
86' |
| Archive Source |
National Film Center |
| |
|
| Print Notes |
Didascalie in giapponese / Japanese intertitles. |
| Cast |
Masao Inoue
Yaeko Mizutani
Hosaku Yoshida
Minoru Takase
Chitose Hayashi
Ryotaro Mizushima |
| |
| Other Credits |
| Sakai, Kenzo (ph.) |
| |
| Other Information |
Antonio Coppola, pianoforte.
prima proiezione / released 24.4.1921 |
| |
| Program Notes |
Rinzo, a coachman, tries to marry Osumi, the daughter of the watermill-keeper Gosuke, who owes him 50 yen. But Osumi hates the vulgar Rinzo, and gets a job as a chambermaid in the house of Count Hanaoka. On the day of the Doll Festival, the Count playfully gives Osumi a ring. Osumi misinterprets it as a marriage proposal, and tells her father of her joy. Learning that Rinzo plans to act violently at Count Hanaoka's house, Gosuke vainly tries to stop him, and kills him.
Kokkatsu was a film company founded in December 1919, at a time when film critics and enthusiasts eagerly discussed the possibility of "pure motion picture drama" in Japan - i.e., film drama abandoning the traditional aspects of Japanese cinema. For example, along with Shochiku Kinema, founded in 1920, the Kokkatsu company dared to use actresses from the outset. This was a bold decision because the oyamas (men who played female roles) still attracted a considerable following among Japanese cinema fans at the time.
Kantsubaki is an example of "pure motion picture drama", and reflects the changes to traditional Japanese cinema under the influence of Japan's exposure to European and American cinema. However, on the level of content, the film keeps the sentimental story typically found in the traditional Shinpa ("New School") films that prevailed throughout the 1910s.
Masao Inoue, who played the role of the father, had been hired as an actor and artistic adviser under exceptionally favorable conditions at Kokkatsu. Kantsubaki was his first film for the company after returning from a study trip to the United States from May to September 1920. Inoue was best known in the West for his role in Kinugasa's Kurutta Ippeiji (A Page of Madness, 1926). Director Ryoha Hatanaka is better known as a man of theatre. Kantsubaki was the first of only three films he directed. Yaeko Mizutani (1905-1979), who played the role of the daughter, was a very well known actress, with a long career in film, theatre, and television. She was directed by Hatanaka on the stage just before appearing in this film. - HK
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