Japanese Film History

Japanese Film History

The Silent Era
The first film produced in Japan was the short documentary in June of 1899.
The first Japanese performer to appear in a film professionally was the dancer/actress Tokuko Nagai Takagi, who appeared in four shorts for the American-based Thanhouser Company between 1911 and 1914.

Most Japanese cinema theatres at the time employed benshi, narrators whose dramatic readings accompanied the film and its musical score which, like in the West, was often performed live. (See also the books Benshi, Japanese Silent Film Narrators, and their Forgotten Narrative Art of Setsumei A History of Japanese Silent Film Narration by Jeffrey A. Dym and The Benshi – Japanese Silent film Narrators.
The 1923 earthquake, the Allied bombing of Tokyo during World War II, as well as the natural effects of time and Japan's humidity on the then more fragile filmstock have all resulted in a great dearth of surviving films from this period.

Some of the most discussed silent films from Japan are those of Mizoguchi Kenji whose later works (e.g. The Life of Ohaur) are still highly regarded today.

The 1930s
Unlike Hollywood, silent films were still being produced in Japan well into the 1930s. Notable talkies of this period include Mizoguchi’s Sisters of the Gion and Osaka Elegy (both 1936).

The 1940s
Kurosawa Akira makes his feature film debut with Sugata Sanshiro in 1943.

The 1950s
The Kurosawa Akira-directed Shichinin no Samurai is released in 1954, the same year as Gojira, known to the West (and to Japan from its first sequel on) as Godzilla. Over ten minutes of footage is cut from Godzilla by its American distributor, mostly of wounded civilians in burning cities, evoking the recent Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Daikaiju films were a mainstay of Japanese cinema for well into the 1970s, and are still being made today.

Ozu Yasujiro directs Tokyo Story (Toukyou monogatari) (1953) and Good Morning (Ohayou) (1959).

The 1960s
Technicolor makes its mark. Ichikawa Kon captures the watershed '64 Olympics in his three-hour documentary Tokyo Olympiad (Toukyou Orimpikku; 1965). Nikkatsu fires Suzuki Seijun for "making films that don't make any sense and don't make any money" after his surrealist yakuza flick Branded to kill (1967).

Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atomu introduces anime to television and gives the world Astro Boy in 1963.

The 1970s
Oshima Nagisa directs Ai no koriida (In the Realm of the Senses; 1976), a World War II, period piece about Abe Sada. Staunchly anti-censorship, he insists the film contain hardcore pornographic material; as a result the exposed film must be shipped to France for processing, and an uncut version of the film has still, to this day, never been shown in Japan.

The 1980s
Miyazaki Hayao adapts his manga Nusicaa of the Valley of wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) into a feature film (an anime of the same name) in 1984. Otomo Katsuhiro adapts his manga Akira into a feature-length anime in 1988. Imamura Shohei wins the Golden Palm at Cannes for Narayama Bushiko (Ballad of Narayama; 1982).

The 1990s
Imamura Shohei again wins the Golden Palm (shared with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami), this time for Unagi (The Eel; 1997), joining Alf Sjöberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Bille August as only the fourth two-time recipient.

2000 and after
Miyazaki Hayoo comes out of retirement to direct Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi; 2001), breaking Japanese box office records and winning the Academic Award for Best Animated Film.


The Thanhouser Company (later the Thanhouser Film Corporation) was a motion picture studio founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser. In 1912 Thanhouser sold the company to the Mutual Film Corporation, after which Charles J. Hite took on overseeing day-to-day operations and Thanhouser's family toured Europe. Hite died in a car accident in 1914 and Thanhouser, having fled the outbreak of World War I resumed his duties as a now-salaried studio head in 1915.
The Thanhouser Corporation, in excellent financial condition despite an industry-wide depression, leased its studio space to the Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation and ceased operations in 1917.

Ozu Yasujiro (December 12, 1903 – December 12, 1963) –film director
He was born in Fukagawa, Tokyo and educated at a boarding school in Matsuzaka. He worked briefly as a teacher before returning to Tokyo in 1923 to join the Shochiku Film Company. Initially a cameraman, he worked as an assistant director within three years and directed his first film, Zange no yaiba (The Sword of Penitence), in 1927. He went on to make a further 53 films - 26 in his first five years as a director, and all but 3 for Shochiku. During World War II he served in China.

He started out making distinctive comedies before moving onto more socially aware works in the 1930s, concentrating on family dramas. He often worked with screenwriter Kogo Noda, other regular collaborators included cameraman Yuharu Atsuta and the actors Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara. His films were most favourably received in the 1950s with works such as Tokyo monogatari (Tokyo Story, 1953), considered to be his masterpiece, and Ochazuke no Aji (The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice, 1952), Soshun (Early Spring, 1956), Ukigusa (Floating Weeds, 1959) and Akibiyori (Late Autumn, 1960). His last film was Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon, 1962). He died of cancer on his 60th birthday and is buried in the grounds of Engaku-ji temple, Kamakura.

As a director he was eccentric and a perfectionist. He was seen as one of the 'most Japanese' film-makers, and as such his work was only rarely shown overseas before the 1960s. He did not use sound until 1935 and did not film in colour until Higanbana (Equinox Flower) in 1958. His trademark shot was one taken from only three or so feet above the floor, the viewpoint of a person on a tatami mat. He was also strongly in favour of a static camera and meticulous compositions where no single actor would dominate a scene.