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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2010 |
Three Shochiku Masters: Yasujiro Shimazu, Hiroshi Shimizu, Kiyohiko Ushihara |
| Film Title |
AI YO JINRUI TO TOMO NI ARE |
| Alternative Title 1 |
[L’amore sia con gli uomini] |
| Alternative Title 2 |
[Love, Be with Humanity] |
| Alternative Title 3 |
|
| Country |
Japan |
| Release Date |
1931 |
| Production Co. |
Shochiku |
| Director |
Yasujiro Shimazu |
| Format |
|
Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
18 |
| |
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| Footage |
|
Time |
| 4990 m. |
|
241' |
| Archive Source |
National Film Center, Tokyo |
| |
|
| Print Notes |
Didascalie in inglese / English intertitles |
| Cast |
| Sojin Kamiyama (Kokichi Yamaguchi), Tokihiko Okada (Osamu, il figlio maggiore/his eldest son), Kimiko Hikari (Fujiko, sua moglie/his wife), Reikichi Kawamura (Yoichi Matsuyama), Mitsuko Yoshikawa (Misao, Kokichi’s elder daughter and Matsuyama’s wife), Hideko Takamine (Yasuo, figlio di Matsuyama/ Matsuyama’s son), Shinyo Nara (Kentaro Sekitani), Shizue Tatsuta (la moglie/the wife Sakura, Kokichi’s younger daughter), Kinuyo Tanaka (Mayumi, Yu’s mistress), Denmei Suzuki (Yu, il figlio più piccolo/the younger son), Hideo Fujino (Okada, il direttore della fabbrica/factory manager); |
| |
| Other Credits |
| aiuto regia/asst. dir: Shiro Toyoda, Fumio Suzuki, Katsuji Arai, Kozaburo Yoshimura, Katsuji Kuroyanagi; scen: Tokusaburo Murakami; f./ph: Takashi Kuwabara, Shinichi Nagai; scg./des: Yoneichi Wakita, Takashi Kono |
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| Program Notes |
Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are was made by Shochiku to celebrate the return to Japan of Sojin Kamiyama, an actor who had enjoyed a successful career in Hollywood under the name of Sojin, appearing in films such as The Thief of Bagdad (1924), the 1926 Moby Dick adaptation The Sea Beast, and Paul Leni’s The Chinese Parrot (1927), in which he played Charlie Chan. Indeed, the shooting of Shimazu’s film was delayed when Kamiyama had to go back briefly to America to complete one more film at Universal, during which time Shimazu himself realized two other movies. The shooting of Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are itself stretched from October 1930 to April 1931, and drew on the services of all the actors, technicians, and staff that Shochiku’s Kamata studios could muster.
This big-budget film was a truly epic undertaking, using more than 60 sets and also incorporating location shooting in Nikko, Akita, Aomori, and the area around Mount Fuji. It was said that if all the distances travelled to shoot the film were totalled, they would be equivalent to a trip around the world. The film enjoyed a month-long run in Japanese cinemas. Doubtless because of Kamiyama’s fame abroad, it was hoped that it would be shown internationally, although it is unclear if this was ever achieved.
The film tells the story of four children who share the same father but have different mothers; the youngest son, played by Denmei Suzuki, is a troublemaker, who revolts against his father’s authority. The original script was written by Tokusaburo Murakami, a leading scriptwriter at Kamata, and has elicited comparisons with King Lear, although a more direct influence may have been Minoru Murata’s seminal 1921 Japanese film Souls on the Road (Rojo no reikon), in which Denmei Suzuki again played a son at odds with his father. Murakami was later to join Suzuki when the latter left Shochiku to work independently. – ALEXANDER JACOBY & JOHAN NORDSTRÖM
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