Last time we talked about Matsunosuke Onoe, first superstar of Japanese film history, and mentioned that he was originally a Kabuki actor.
The influence of Kabuki was primordial in early Japanese films. One of the most recurring debates on film is about its relation with theater, and so is, wherever you look at those days, history. It’s then natural that each country would show characteristics of its own theater tradition in the movies that were produced and released until the end of the thirties when the Second World War changed things a lot.
Onoe’s performances on the screen were identical to his performances on stage for the simple reason that the entire film itself responded the Kabuki tradition he came from.
As for films starring Onoe, apart from the last part of his career, male actors, like in the theater, held all female parts. The first films actually featuring a woman are said to be short films produced by an American based production company, between 1911 and 1914. This woman, Tokuko Nagai Takagi, was a dancer and performed in four movies produced by the Thanhouser Company, motion picture studio founded in the U.S in 1909.
Besides, we know now that silent films were actually not silent. If the film itself was mute, men were quick to find an alternative and we know that narrators and live bands accompanied the screenings.
American film theaters were well known for their live bands giving the movies an atmosphere not only thanks to the musical score but also by providing sound effects.
However, silent films in Japan showed something different as they benefited from the traditional theater habit consisting in leaving most of the narration to a narrator who was sitting near the stage. Bensh 弁士, as they were called in Japan, then started to work with silent films the same way they had always worked with plays. The benshi stood by the screen and introduced the story to the audience and provided dialogues for he usually spoke for the characters, playing multiple parts. Those narrators did not only take part in the Japanese film screenings but also ensured translation through their general commentary and acting performance in the case of foreign films (mainly American).
Nevertheless, most of the films released in these early times are lost. The Kanto earthquake in 1923 and the ensuing fire, the poor quality of ancient films confronted to Japanese high degree of humidity and of course the Second World War bombing destroyed many of those movies. Moreover, if the Europeans or the Americans rapidly showed concern regarding the conservation of cultural properties, it has been proved many times that Asia did not worry about cultural heritage represented by actual things. When traditions have been passed on through generations, it’s only recently that films began to be considered as precious testimonies of their times.
