Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Mar 28, 2008, 1:16 PM
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Ancient anime restored using digitizing techniques
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Modern digitizing and coloring technologies have brought two of Japan's oldest animated films back to life.
One, Namakura Gatana: Hanawa Hekonai Meitou no Maki, was made in 1917 by Junichi Kouuchi and is the oldest surviving Japanese animated film screened in theaters, according to the country's National Film Center.
Parts of the two films, bought by a researcher at an antique fair last summer, were shown to the media Thursday at the center, located in the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Previously, the films had been only known in historical documents saying that they were shown in 1917 and 1918.
Produced during the Taisho Era (1912-1926), the two films will be screened with others at the center, starting April 24, as part of the "Cinema: Lost and Found 2008" event.
Namakura Gatana, meaning "dull-edged sword," is a two-minute comedy about a samurai who -- thanks to his dull instrument -- loses every time he attacks a weak opponent. In order to examine the sword, he tries to attack passersby, but lower-class townspeople fight back and knock him down.
Also about two minutes long, the other film, Urashima Taro, was made in 1918 by Seitaro Kitayama. It's based on a well-known Japanese folk tale about an honest fisherman who is invited to an underwater castle after saving a sea turtle on a beach from bullies.
Japan's very first animated theatrical film, Outen Shimokawa's Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki, was screened in January 1917 (a few months before Namakura Gatana hit the screen), but is considered lost. According to the National Film Center, 1917 is considered the birth year of animated films in Japan.
The center restored the two rediscovered silent anime films after they were bought by Natsuki Matsumoto, 55, a researcher of the history of image culture in Osaka Prefecture.
"They were both kept in paper containers, which prevented the films from deteriorating thanks to good ventilation," said Yoko Akasaki, a film researcher at the museum. "We knew these films existed from reading about them in historical documents," she said. "We confirmed they were the films, as they bore their titles."
Located in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, the National Film Center will screen 96 newly found or restored films as part of its exhibition. Besides Namakura Gatana and Urashima Taro, films to be shown include Seiyukai Sosai Tanaka Giichi-shi Enzetsu (in 1928), Japan's first talking picture.
In the pioneer days of movies in Japan, silent films were screened with narrations.
According to Akasaki, the rediscovered films are especially interesting for researchers. "They are very ingeniously crafted, for example, using the technique of shadowplay in the middle of the story," she said.
Scene from the 1917 comedy Namakura Gatana: Hanawa Hekonai Meitou no Maki, one of Japan's oldest animated films.
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Mar 28, 2008, 1:19 PM)
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