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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2005 |
Light from the East: Celebrating Japanese Cinema
Shochiku 110 - Naruse 100 -- Prog. 1 |
| Film Title |
GOKETSU JIRAIYA |
| Alternative Title 1 |
[IL PRODE JIRAIYA] |
| Alternative Title 2 |
[JIRAIYA, THE NINJA] |
| Alternative Title 3 |
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| Country |
Japan |
| Release Date |
1 February 1921 |
| Production Co. |
Nikkatsu |
| Director |
Shozo Makino |
| Format |
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Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
16 |
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| Footage |
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Time |
| 1250 ft. |
|
21' |
| Archive Source |
National Film Center, Tokyo |
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| Print Notes |
Didascalie in giapponese sottotitolate in inglese / Japanese intertitles, English subtitles. |
| Cast |
| Matsunosuke Onoe, Suminojo Ichikawa, Nagamasa Kataoka, Kijaku Otani, Shoen Otani |
| |
| Other Credits |
| f./ph: Minoru Miki |
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| Program Notes |
This is one of the very few surviving films featuring Matsunosuke Onoe (1875-1926), the first movie star in Japan, who starred in more than 1,000 films. It is based on the fantastic tale of Jiraiya, the hero of a ninja novel adapted from a famous Chinese story which was so popular that from 1839 onwards it was serialized for over 30 years, and then became a staple of kabuki theatre. Jiraiya had the ability to fly, to vanish, and to transform himself into a toad at will, and it wasn’t until his filmic incarnation that his character finally found the perfect medium for the visualization of his magic powers.
Matsunosuke’s popularity was by this time firmly established, and the film’s success was due both to his superb performance and the innovative ideas of director Shozo Makino (1878-1929), known as “the father of Japanese cinema”. This film marks the end of the very last phase of their collaboration. Soon after it was completed Makino left Nikkatsu and Matsunosuke in order to pursue a new style of filmmaking at his own independent studio. – FUMIKO TSUNEISHI
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