SHINTOHO POST!

I do apologize for the caps lock, but I have been wanting to make this post since before I started this blog. We finally (I mean, not "finally", this didn't just happen, but I only just found out about it) have confirmation of movies that Akihiko Hirata worked on as an assistant director while he was at Shintoho. I am almost certain he wouldn't have been credited for this work since he was only part-time. There's probably even more movies that he worked on, but these are the only two I've ever heard of.

It's very exciting! For me at least, maybe for you too, I don't know.

So the source I got this from was a blog post that had abnormally detailed information about Hirata's background before he became an actor. The blog is run by a person who tracks down and visits the graves of figures from the Showa era; this in itself is interesting as until just now I did not actually know where Hirata's grave is (at Zennoji Temple) nor did I think anyone else did - they didn't on the BBS board, at least, but that was a good 20+ years ago. There are no citations, but Lynching was corroborated in the Kinejun interview I translated (though I didn't realize it at the time since the translation - which I have since fixed - was very poor) so I have to assume Youth Decameron is legit as well. Here are the movies:

Lynching [1949] dir. Nobuo Nakagawa

A yakuza film which marked the first collaboration between Nobuo Nakagawa and huge star Kanjūrō Arashi. The film does exist and the rights are currently held by Kokusai Broadcasting; it is also housed in the National Film Archive collection. It does not presently seem to have any physical media release, but I have contacted someone about obtaining a copy. A heavily edited 64-minute version was re-released in 1958 under the title Escape from Lawless Town.

(Edit: I obtained and watched this wonderful movie and I talk about it at length here. Also find a link to the full movie on archive.org within that post.)

Youth Decameron [1950] dir. Gorō Kadono

I can barely find anything out about this at all. The most detailed information I've seen comes from a Twitter user who obtained a pamphlet and trailer for this film. Apparently some of the staff and cast was unknown until this person was able to track down the correct credits. The rights are also owned by Kokusai, but the film doesn't appear to be in the National Film Archive. It seems to be a musical (probably obvious from the poster) with Kyōko Kagawa as the lead. A heavily edited 47-minute version was re-released under the title Laugh-Out-Loud Fun. 

This means I get to make two brand new tags: "1940s" and "assistant director"! I will add to these if I find out more. Oh God, I really have a "1940s" tag on this blog now, we're in deep...

70 Years of Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy: Musashi In America

...but we can't let Godzilla '54 have ALL the fun. 

This year, Inagaki's Samurai trilogy also turned 70. The first film, Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, is the only film Hirata was in that won an (American) Academy Award¹. Let's talk a little bit about the reception of these films in the United States.

In the early-to-mid-1950s, cinema from Japan was slowly starting to seep into Western theaters, and with the increased visibility came increased recognition - Gate of Hell won the grand prize at Cannes in 1954, as well as an Academy Honorary Award and the Golden Leopard at Locarno. Three years prior, in 1951, Rashōmon also won an AHA; as per Wikipedia it was "voted by the Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951." This was the first time a Japanese film had been recognized by the Academy Awards.

Samurai I was released theatrically in the United States as Samurai: The Legend of Musashi on November 19th, 1955. It was only the fourth Japanese film to have a theatrical release in the United States. American actor William Holden had a lot to do with propelling the Samurai trilogy towards its stateside release and eventual Academy win - he even contributed VA work when it was finally shown in American theaters. 

On March 21st, 1956, Samurai I received an Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Incredibly, footage exists of this.

Despite its recognition by the Academy, in the eyes of critics, Japanese film was - and would remain - something of a novelty. This is a New York Times article² about Samurai II from October of 1967 that I feel encapsulates the way Japanese film - particularly jidaigeki - was still "other" in the eyes of U.S. critics. I've chopped down some highlights that show the flippant tone that was pretty standard for American film critics confronting Japanese cinema:

"IF you like grunting and slashing sword-fighting by a heavily costumed Japanese, determined to demonstrate his chivalry to his ponderous rivals in a feudalistic and ritualistic society, then you might want to see what is billed as Part II of Hiroshi Inagaki's "Samurai," which is actually the second part of a trilogy called "Musashi Miyamoto." [...] For this and a lot more of the same sort of elaborately attitudinized pining and swooning by pretty females over the glowering hero that goes on in Part I is all you will see in this segment. It simply carries on for another couple of hours the series of bristling confrontations of the heroic title character of "Samurai," which was first shown here in 1956 and has been offered in a revival at the 55th Street for the last three weeks. I suppose it is as a favor to the Japanese audience in New York and to aficionados of Nippon and students of Japanese films that Toho International is now presenting in sequential engagements the three sections of Mr. Inagaki's trilogy, which was made in 1956 with the then magnificently vital and immensely popular Toshiro Mifune as its star.

   Films about samurai are now old hat—as commonplace as old Hollywood Westerns. And, anyhow, there have been several better than this—Akira Kurosawa's "The Magnificent Seven," for instance, and Mr. Inagaki's own "Chushingura," which we saw here in 1963 and which had qualities of decor and color much superior to those in "Samurai." This is not said with any critical prejudice against this old favorite of the Japanese, but simply to advise the general public that it is a conspicuously fustian and monotonous period piece."

Let's go a little further back in time, though; to a NYT article from when Samurai I first opened in 1956. It is similarly unkind.

"THE clearest description we can give you of the new Japanese film, "Samurai," which came yesterday to the Little Carnegie, is that it is an Oriental western, dressed in sixteenth-century get-ups and costumes, but as violently melodramatic as any horse opera out of Hollywood. The hero of this elaborate pastiche is a village gent who wants to be a samurai, a first-class warrior in the Japanese feudal system—or a big shot in a glorified bandit gang. And, in the pursuit of his ambition, he goes off with a somewhat reluctant friend to join the army of a local war lord and win everlasting fame. But the war is lost and our snorting sword-swinger, put to rout with the rest of the army and forced to flee, goes wandering about the country, making muscles and generally shunning amorous dames—all of which is entirely consistent with the behavior of heroes in western films.[...]

   It is futile to try to compare this lurid picture with such previous, exciting Japanese films as the intellectually absorbing "Rashomon" or the sensitive and esthetic "Gate of Hell." This one has no dramatic cohesion, no refinement of taste, no point of view. The most it says, in the way of social comment, is that martial ambition is the bunk. It is best to marry a loving woman and be peaceful, wise and virtuous. The only area of comparison is in performance and in the quality of color and camera-work. Toshiro Mifune is striking as the hero (He was the bandit in "Rashomon.") In the standard style of Japanese acting, he leans to the exaggerated gesture and flamboyant air.

People were not taking this stuff seriously. Inagaki was quoted as saying "It was completely unexpected that Samurai won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, which filmmakers all over the world have dreamed of. I never expected that my work, which has never won a Japanese film award, would win an American award." Given the harsh critical reception seen above, its win does feel pretty surprising.

But not every Western critic was so harsh on Inagaki. Donald Richie in his expanded edition of The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (originally published in 1959) spares some kind words for the Samurai trilogy and in doing so points out that non-Japanese film critics simply did not see much of the imagery the way that it was intended to be seen.

"Foreigners who were puzzled at Hiroshi Inagaki's intercutting his love scenes with shots of running water in Musashi Miyamoto (better known abroad as Samurai) failed to make the connection which Inagaki expected of his audience: earthly passion was being contrasted with the standard poetic image for the impermanence of life on this earth."

To be fair, the version that American audiences were seeing was heavily edited, so critics of the film were not being given it in its entirety. But, knowing them, if they had been, they'd probably just gripe about the runtime and excess of swordfighting.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was released in March of 1956. I have mentioned this on here before, but aside from Takashi Shimura, the only Japanese cast member who American audiences might have recognized when watching the Americanized Godzilla for the first time would have been Akihiko Hirata. And it's possible that they'd seen him in something even before Samurai I, since Itsuko and Her Mother received a small theatrical run a few months beforehand. This is, of course, all theoretical; I highly doubt American audiences cared much, if at all, about Japanese bit-part actors at this point.

The Criterion Collection has included the Samurai trilogy since the early 1990s when it was still releasing films on laserdisc. In 2012 the Criterion Collection re-released Inagaki's entire trilogy on DVD, updating the picture quality and sound and including interviews that supplied some historical background on the events of the film. Your local library may have a copy of one or all of these. As for (legal) streaming, all three films are on the Criterion Channel, and you can sign up for a free trial to watch them if you aren't already subscribed. These films are well worth watching if you have a passing interest in Japanese film, and they are important to its wider history, as well as its place in the international eye.

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1 The Academy Honorary Award was established in 1950 to cover films that were not included in pre-existing Academy Award categories.

2 I have also found an NYT article referring to Story of Osaka Castle as an "inscrutable horse opera".

The Serizawa Post (Godzilla 70th Anniversary Special): Part Two

In this half of the post, we're going to be covering trivia and other random information and images garnered from various sources. Some of these sources are in my own personal Godzilla collection, some I've found through online research; see my "works cited" section at the bottom of parts 1 and 2 for more detail.

Prepare yourself.

1.) Those diving suits were orange

This doesn't seem to be common knowledge, considering that I've never seen any figures or official (or non-official) art that has Serizawa's diving suit as anything other than either a drab grey or a dull yellowy color. You'll hear it tossed around often that we don't know what color the first Godzilla suit was, since it was filmed in black-and-white and no color photos exist, but in the case of the suits, we do have surviving props that give an idea of the actual color.

photo cribbed from reddit user /u/TVTriangle - sorry, hope you don't mind me and my 0 follower blog stealing your stuff

Additionally, both Hirata and Takarada said that being inside the suits was like "being in a blast furnace". The entirety of Godzilla was shot in late summer and that scene was filmed outside in an actual boat. The underwater scenes were filmed indoors, however, by placing a fish tank between the camera and Hirata, in the diving suit.

BTS photo with fish tank

2.) There's a weird non-canon Godzilla manga where Serizawa has a nephew

There's a lot of weird non-canon Godzilla manga, I know. Check out a fan translation by LSD Jellyfish - it's actually pretty good. And yes! This is indeed very, very pre-MonsterVerse.

yeah i don't know why they drew him with curly hair either

This comes from The Godzilla Comic, a completely bonkers collection of Godzilla short manga released in 1990 with contributions from some big names. There's also whatever is going on in Minoru Kawasaki's contribution:

Kawasaki's part is a short story about pop star Yuki Saito being recruited into the Earth Defense Force to use her singing skills to placate Godzilla. I have no idea if it's meant to be implied that all of this is taking place within a Toho movie (so all the actors are playing roles) or if it's some kind of alternate universe where everybody actually is part of the Earth Defense Force. This is far, and I mean far from the strangest thing in The Godzilla Comic. Let's see some much more normal manga now...

4.) Toho's own promotional manga

I actually can't find out much information about this one. It was reprinted in issue six of Godzilla Magazine alongside Monster Picture Story Godzilla, a more well-known manga. It appears to have been produced by Toho themselves (the Kansai branch, anyway) and ran in a newspaper or magazine. The machine translation of the text at the beginning says it's a "storyboard", but this is definitely not the original Godzilla storyboard; there are ample enough pictures of that out there, and it looks completely different. We can also tell from Godzilla's appearance - closer to the maquette, when he's drawn accurately at all - that this manga was clearly produced prior to the film's release.

The text accompanying the images is a simple description of a handful of scenes from the film, and wake up, babes, new German Friend™ lore just dropped.

This is the first time I have ever heard anything of the sort, and it is so severely non-canon that breaking it down is almost not even worth it, but the whole scenario doesn't make sense. It's unclear in the above sentence who "he" refers to - whether it was Serizawa or the German who was a POW, or if they were prisoners together - but no matter what, Serizawa is canonically 27 as of 1954 and therefore could not possibly have gotten his university-level education as a chemist until after the war. I believe that things like this (of which I've seen a few) are the remnants of earlier script drafts where Serizawa was much older that were not changed after he was aged down in the final version.

4.) More strange, plot-irrelevant Godzilla promo stills

You thought I was done talking about weird stills and deleted scenes? Never.

You have probably seen a poster or two for Godzilla (like this one, also featuring Ogata and Emiko looking cool in their Cabton) which included an image of Serizawa carrying Emiko that never appeared anywhere in the film. Here's a clearer image of that and another still from the same shoot:

And here is what the description says:

"Image still directed by Ishirō Honda. [As in] the still on page 51 of this book, Serizawa is wearing makeup based on the description in scene 41 of the script, 'Half of his face is wounded[...]'. According to Honda, he was conscious of German Expressionism in the style of [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]."

The "still on page 51" is this, another promo still:

Almost every single advance poster for Godzilla had Serizawa's facial scarring much more prominent than it was in the film, and so did the multitude of script drafts. I'm not sure if there was a specific reason why it was downplayed a bit more in the final film. And I don't know about you all, but I'm positively riveted by the thought of a more German Expressionism-influenced Godzilla. 

5.) Serizawa's entry in the 2014 Godzilla dictionary

"A beloved student of Dr. Kyohei Yamane, he is a doctor who runs the Serizawa Scientific Research Institute. He has been engaged to Dr. Yamane's daughter, Emiko, since childhood, but he felt inferior after he was scarred on his face during the war, and he has kept his feelings for her to himself. From then on, he shut himself away in his laboratory and studied oxygen from every angle. In the process, he invented the Oxygen Destroyer, which destroys oxygen in water in an instant. However, because it could become a weapon worse than an atomic bomb depending on how it is used, he refrains from making it public, and is prepared to die if he is forced to use it as a weapon. At first, he continues to refuse to use it as a weapon against Godzilla, but [...] moved by [the Prayer for Peace], he decides to use it just once. He successfully destroys Godzilla, but then takes his own life. He dies at the age of 27."

6.) BTS photos

Photos taken at Ise-shima, which was used for the Odo Island filming locations. The location of the photo on the left is given as "a deserted beach beyond the Ishigami Cape [in Toba]". The photo on the right was taken at an inn where the cast and crew stayed.

7.) Bonus: whatever is going on in Daikajuu Deburas

This is a video game released in 1990 for the Nintendo Famicom that has a lot of intentional nods to Toho tokusatsu films, as well as other things like Ultraman. I'm gonna give you one guess as to what the game's eyepatch-wearing scientist is named.

You can guess it, I know you can. You got this.

Did you guess?

That's right, he's named Dr. Yamane.

_____

Works cited:

Godzilla and Toho Tokusatsu Official Mook, vol 1. Godzilla. Kodansha, 2023.

Kohei Nomura, editor. Godzilla Encyclopedia [New Edition]. Kasakura Publishing, 2014.

Koichi Kawakita, supervisor. Japan Special Effects Movie Encyclopedia Toho Edition BEST54. Seibido Publishing, 1999.

The Serizawa Post (Godzilla 70th Anniversary Special): Part One

Kinema Junpo issue from September 15, 1954

Since this year is the 70th anniversary of the first Godzilla movie and arguably Akihiko Hirata's most iconic role, I wanted to make a big post about it to celebrate. My initial idea was to begin the post by charting up a timeline that followed the development of Serizawa as a character through various drafts and revisions and then move on to random trivia, but after a while, my timeline became so huge that I decided to split the post into two parts. The second part will go up on Godzilla Day.

• February 10, 1954: Ishirō Honda's Farewell Rabaul is released to theaters. I argue that this is important, as Hirata's role in this film led to him being cast in Godzilla.
• May 1954: Shigeru Kayama submits a first draft of his screenplay for Godzilla. Serizawa is described as a pharmaceutical chemist, a friend of Yamane's who lost his eye in a wolf attack(!) while on a fossil dig in China. He is older than in the film (around 40), and had a wife who died of an illness some years prior. He also isn't engaged to Emiko but is "secretly in love with her". I get the sense that Kayama intended Serizawa to be a physically imposing, maybe even slightly creepy presence; in this draft his facial scars are more prominent and he's described as having a "large build".
• July 5, 1954: Production on Godzilla is officially announced.
• May-August 1954: Kayama's screenplay is revised and developed into a final version by Honda and co-writer Takeo Murata. Serizawa has more of a role here than in the Kayama version, and not too much is different from the film except for his age (32) and the fact that he has a housemaid (Honda intended to imply that Serizawa was or had been upper-class).
• July 17-September 25: Nippon Broadcasting System airs Kaiju Gojira, a radio drama adaptation of Honda and Murata's screenplay scripted by Shiro Horie, with extra scenes added for padding. Serizawa is voiced by Masahiko Naruse.
• July 1954: Akihiko Hirata screen-tests for the role of Hideto Ogata but does not get the part. At some point between now and when filming begins, he switches roles with Akira Takarada to play Dr. Serizawa instead. I talk about this at considerable length here.
• August 1, 1954: Rehearsal meeting.
• August 7, 1954: Crank-in at the Toba filming location.
• September 29, 1954: Filming concludes.
• October 23, 1954: Toho in-house preview screening.
• October 25, 1954: Iwaya Shoten publishes Kaiju Gojira, a novel adaptation of the NBS radio drama written by Sango Nagase and finalized by Shigeru Kayama. (NB: This is different from Kayama's novelizations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again.) As this has not been translated into English, I'm unaware of how, if at all, Serizawa's character differs from other versions.
• October 27, 1954: First screening of Godzilla in Nagoya.
• October-November 1954: Science Adventure Picture Story Godzilla, written and drawn by Wasuke Abe, is published in Omoshiro Book. I'm not exactly clear on this, but it seems like in this version of events Serizawa does not commit suicide at the end. (Yamane's the one with the German friend here.)
• Nov 3, 1954: Gojira is released to Japanese theaters across the country.
• March 1955: Kodansha publishes Monster Picture Story: Godzilla, written by Koichi Yoshida and illustrated by Shunichi Iwaigawa, in Bokura magazine. In it, the other characters learn about Serizawa and his weapon (name changed to "Oxygent") through a random unnamed soldier. Serizawa wears glasses instead of an eyepatch. (I believe this page shows meganekko Serizawa.)
• July 20, 1955: Shimamura Publishing co. releases Godzilla: Tokyo and Osaka Editions, Shigeru Kayama's novelizations of the first two Godzilla films. This was not based on the radio play and is Kayama's original work. Serizawa is largely the same as he is in the film but is described as having long hair that covers his missing eye instead of an eyepatch.

I will cut the list off here as anything further doesn't really count as "character development".

Despite the fluctuating prominence of Serizawa's role in Godzilla's storyline throughout preliminary materials, there are some things that have remained constant in pre-final drafts:

1. Dr. Serizawa is always described as missing an eye, although how he lost it varies, if any explanation is given at all. I don't believe there are any sources pre-dating the finished film that specify which eye; however I do think the choice to make it his right eye was deliberate as there is historical and literary precedence (Tange Sazen, Ishimatsu, Masamune Date, Oiwa, etc). You probably shouldn't be listening to my crackpot theories about this.
2. Serizawa always has the Oxygen Destroyer and is always the one to use it to kill Godzilla; as far as I'm aware he also dies at the end of every preliminary screenplay. How and why he's convinced to use the Oxygen Destroyer varies.
3. Some specific dialogue is consistent throughout versions, for example there is always a line where someone tells Serizawa that spending so much time in his lab is bad for his health.

Almost every character in Godzilla went through several changes before the final film (for example, Dr. Yamane was originally going to be a much more mysterious, antagonistic character, who wore dark clothing and glasses). Shinkichi has had more of a role at times, mostly in post-Godzilla serializations, to appeal to a younger audience; some versions have Emiko aged down as well.

On to some less technical stuff in part two...

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Works cited:

^{Kayama, Shigeru. Toho SF Special Effects Film Series, vol. 3. Toho, 1985.}

^{Godziszewski, Ed. "The Making of Godzilla." G-Fan, #12. Nov/Dec 1994, pp. 34-39.}

^{Shodai Godzilla Research Reader. Yoizensha, 2014.} 

^{Japanese Giants, #10. 2004. p. 10.}

Galbraith IV, Stuart. Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!. Feral House, 1998.