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The Lost Picture Show: Japan's World War II Movies
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13408 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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9 / 1987 |
1,840 Words |
| Author
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David Owens
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The now-renowned Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa was finishing his fourth feature in the summer of 1945 as the Pacific War ground toward its inevitable result. He rushed to shoot and edit his own version of a popular classic of the Kabuki repertoire, Kanjincho (The Subscription List), while he could still get raw film stock, a few lights that might work, essential costumes, and other equipment that was increasingly difficult to requisition. He screened the finished film for the military censors, as regulations required, in mid-August. The censors were horrified and promptly banned the film. Had the war not ended within a few days of the screening, Kurosawa would likely have suffered serious consequences for what the motion-picture governing authority considered a virtual blasphemy of the heroic values depicted in the original classic drama.
When the Supreme Command Allied Powers (SCAP) set up shop in the conquered nation a few weeks later, one of its earliest missions was to find and review the films produced under the sanction of Japan's wartime motion-picture monopoly (which had been officially established in 1940) and to confiscate those films that it deemed militaristic, feudal, or antidemocratic. In all, SCAP reviewed 554 films. It seized and condemned 225 of these as dangerously subversive. One of those condemned films was Kurosawa's version of Kanjincho, which the director had titled Tora no O o Fumu Otokotachi (Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail). SCAP condemned it because it was a historical period piece that dealt with "feudal values."
Feudal Values
The feudal value at the center of Tiger's Tail is unswerving loyalty to one's liege lord. As the classic version of the tale goes, a once mighty warlord, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, is fleeing from the authorities disguised as a servant to a priest. The priest is actually Yoshitsune's lieutenant, a renowned warrior named Benkei. Their retinue is ostensibly collecting subscriptions for a temple. When stopped at a military checkpoint, Benkei even goes so far as to beat his "servant" to convince the authorities of their identity. The official in charge of the checkpoint knows who they are but is so moved by the lengths to which Benkei will go to protect his master that he lets them pass.
The element in Kurosawa's version that so angered Japan's military censors was a character the director added: a bumbling porter, a countrified servant in the priest's retinue, who comments in amazement on the intrigue taken place before him. The porter is played by Enomoto Kenichi, known as Enoken, Japan's most popular comedian of the 1930s and 1940s. His presence in the film has been likened to having Jerry Lewis take part in Hamlet.
Thus Kurosawa achieved the unique distinction of having a film condemned by both Japanese and American censors. Tiger's Tail was finally released to the Japanese public in 1952 and has subsequently enjoyed modest success in the United States as well.
Despite his double damning, Kurosawa has been far luckier than most wartime directors were. At least this film and the other three he made during the war survived to be seen later. The works of many other directors did not physically survive at all. Some veteran Japanese cinephiles say that two of Mizoguchi Kenji's best films were Naniwa Onna (Woman of Osaka, 1940) and Geido Ichidai
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