キネマ旬報 1953年11月下旬号No.78 / キネマ旬報 1953年12月上旬号No.79 / Kinema Junpo, November & December 1953 Issues

Kinema Junpo featured Tetsuwan Namida Ari twice in 1953, once as an upcoming film and once as a review after it had been released. These two issues are the ones I've been most exited about among the stack of Kinejun issues I recently bought. It's absolutely thrilling to me to be reading a review from someone who actually watched Tetsuwan Namida Ari in a theater when it first came out.

Late November issue

The text reads, or at least Google Translate claims that it reads:

   "Bunjiro Asakura's original work is adapted by Motosada Nishikame, director of 'Yasugoro Shusse', and directed by Eisuke Takizawa, director of 'Yudachi Kangoro'. The photo was taken for 'Kenkago'. Harumi Fujii and the Takarazuka Music Club are in charge of the music. The performers are Shozo Sugiyama of 'Kuro-obi Arashi', Noboru Kiritate of 'Kekuto'[?], Akihiko Hirata, a newcomer who made his debut in 'Hōyō' on the recommendation of Yoshiko Yamaguchi, and Kahoru Uji of the Takarazuka Revue, as well as Shirayuki Shikibi, Jūshiro Kobayashi, Jiro Ohara, and Sachio Sakai, among others.

   Ryusaku Nishikawa, a student at Kanto University, and his love in the chaotic period immediately after the end of the war. On their way back from seeing a movie, Katsuko is attacked by the town's yakuza. Ryusaku is beaten to the ground due to the sadness of being powerless, and Katsuko is also robbed of her chastity. Ryusaku joins his university's karate club in order to resist the unjust violence in this world.

   After three years of struggle, Ryusaku, who has turned into a demon of revenge, is now competing with Jonan University as a vice-commander[?]. It was about to be a competitive match. Professor Higashino's daughter Sachiko, who works in the academic research lab, looks with fond eyes at Ryusaku's heroic figure.

   Ryusaku, who started working as a part-time disinfectant with [his friend] Koibuchi, meets Katsuko again in a drinking district, but Katsuko's attitude is different from that of Yasuda's mistress, who is a subordinate of Himasa. Ryusaku had a fight with Yasuda and withdrew from school, and he lived a life that was in ruins, remembering the old figure of Katsuko who never returned. However, he was lonely.

   Koibuchi and Sachiko's hard efforts in order to welcome Ryusaku to the school's match bore fruit, and Ryusaku, who had shed his unhealthy lifestyle, prepared enthusiastically for the game. The competition was bright; the crown of victory shining above Ryusaku's head, and with cheerful praise and words of encouragement, he took the first step towards rehabilitation.

   After learning the details, Katsuko desperately ran to Ryusaku. It was an explosion of her anger, which had been deceived until the very end, and Ryusaku's 'iron arm' gradually became filled with murderous intent in front of Himasa and the others. The cowardly Himasa pulled out a pistol. Katsuko tried to stop this and was struck by a bullet, but Katsuko also shot [Himasa] to death. Ryusaku survives, and is welcomed by Sachiko's warm hands, where he works hard on karate and schoolwork."

NB "Akihiko Hirata, a newcomer[...]" my lord. All of this was just about a year before Godzilla came out, so this was the kind of stuff people knew him from.

Early December issue

This issue included mentions of two other relevant films, which I will put up photos of as well. We've got not only Tetsuwan Namida Ari but also Girls in the Orchard (which very recently got subtitled for the first time - gorgeous film, go watch it!) and Tonight for One Night. It's also the grossest magazine issue I own. It looks like it was run over by a car.

Let's look at that review. This was written by one Yukichi Shinada. Shinada was NOT a fan, to say the least. I've run this through a translator multiple times because I just cannot believe how scathing it is.

   "I think Sengoku Gunto-den [1937] is the oldest work by Eisuke Takizawa that I have seen, but after watching Tetsuwan Namida Ari, I couldn't imagine it was made by the same director who made Sengoku Gunto-den. Yasugoro Shusse, Yudaichigoro, and Tetsuwan Namida Ari have made Eisuke Takizawa's performance slowly decline since the beginning of this year. This movie is a third-rate work.

   There is a college student whose girlfriend was taken away by violence. He seems to think that the only way to repay the violence is to rely on his own strength. This is a fine way of thinking, but in order to develop his strength, he learns karate. He counters violence with violence. Isn't this a childish and simple way of thinking that wouldn't be typical of a college student? When I [saw] this college student's way of thinking in the first part of the movie, I thought it was stupid; therefore, I was not interested in the story that unfolded under thus premise. The story itself is also sloppy.

   Watching this movie, it seems like there is only one gang in Kobe. Wherever the protagonist goes, all the thugs who happen to appear are from the same gang. In other words, the script is sloppy.

   The most noticeable thing about Eisuke Takizawa's direction was the pointless throwaway shots that only served to drag the movie down. The [sequence] about poor [? I can't figure out how to translate these kanji - possibly something like "nurturing"?] closed with a bonus shot that looked full of emotion, but this only confirmed the blandness of that [sequence].

   Actors from the Takarazuka Company appear in many roles, including the lead, but their acting is weak. Akihiko Hirata, who plays the protagonist, is about as charming as a stone, so it seems strange that two women are in love with him.

   The acting was also awkward and contrived. I think this every time I watch a Takarazuka film, but if they keep making such stupid films, Takarazuka's bad reputation will only solidify. I hope the top brass will step up."

Absolutely BRUTAL. Wow. Yukichi Shinada, we have beef now. Meet me in the pit.

After reading that, I'm wondering in the back of my mind... is this the reason why he never got any lead roles? Because the one time that happened, the movie got torn apart? I'll have to try to dig up other contemporary reviews to see if the critical reception was unanimously this bad or if that was just one guy who was really not vibing with Tetsuwan Namida Ari. 

Okay, okay, let's move on. Girls in the Orchard. Not an introduction or review, just a mention among Toho's upcoming pictures. The rest of the article also mentions "the highly-anticipated Seven Samurai" having been delayed to the next year.

in my head I refer to this film as "the flute one"

And Tonight for One Night. There is no information about this film in English as far as I'm aware, but doing internet archaeology rewarded me with this two-minute clip from the film. There's no home media/streaming release of this that I know of, so I'm not sure where this person recorded the clip from. (The account who tweeted it says "I want to watch this the whole way through" - me too, buddy, me too.)

"Adaptation of Kazuo Hirotsu's '[The Town of the Inlet]'. Directed by Toshiro Ide of 'Nigorie Machi' and supervised by Yasuki Chiba of 'Kofuku-san'. Seiichi Endo of 'Seishun Zenigata Heiji' was the cinematographer. Kaoru Yachigusa, Sadako Sawamura, Kunitaro Sawamura, Shoji Nakayama, Akihiko Hirata, Mistuko Miura appear. Starring Nobuo Nakamura and others.

   There is a restaurant and inn called Kotobukiya in a beautiful inlet town on the Seto inland sea. Who are Kiyosaku and Ohama, husband and wife?

   Kiyosaku is a good-natured man who moved to Hawaii to work, and his only son, Seiichi, is attending university in Tokyo. Okei, an older maid, is the daughter of a poor fisherman who works hard to save up money to open a haberdashery shop, while Omiyo is a twenty-seven-year-old woman who likes men and is currently flirting with Koizumi, a salesman, but she also has feelings for the young master Seiichi. The young Oharu recently started working in the tatami room, and she is a pure and innocent girl who also seems to like Seiichi. Kotobukiya is frequented by the town bosses, including Yamacho, Maruhachi, Umino, and Ikezu. They all secretly have their eye on Oharu, but she is firm in her position.

   Omiyo, who had run away with Koizumi, came back when she found out that the man was a salary earner with a wife and children. Oharu and Omiyo are heartbroken when Seiichi comes home for school vacation. Okei had enough money and left town.

   One day, a showy young couple arrived and became the envy of everyone, but soon a detective arrived and led them away. Traveling actor Uzaemon has feelings for Oshima, who resembles his old mistress, but she doesn't believe in men's love. The relationship between Oharu and Seiichi progresses rapidly, and Omiyo is filled with jealousy, but changes her mind and tries to let the two escape to Tokyo.

   When Uzaemon shows his love to her for the second time, Oshima joins in, knowing that it will be difficult. 

   Will happiness come to young Oharu and Seiichi?"

Hope this was as interesting for you as it was for me. Because for me it was extremely interesting. As per usual, nobody but me bid on these on Yahoo! Auctions, and they were going for the equivalent of $2.50. I'm not going to stick any of these in a scanner, they're already falling apart, but as always if anybody out there wants more extensive pictures of other sections of the magazines (like the features on foreign films) I can provide those.

キネマ旬報 1953年３月下旬号No.59 / Kinema Junpo, Late March 1953 Issue

So, remember when I said in my post about The Last Embrace that if I ever lost my fool head and paid a decent chunk of change to import the Kinema Junpo issue featuring that film, I would make a new post about it?

Wellllll...

As it turns out, the only mention of The Last Embrace in this issue amounts to a two-page ad spread. But to my surprise there was a feature on Pu-san in there! We all know Pu-san right? That Kon Ichikawa movie with Yūnosuke Itō? The one that Akihiko Hirata is in for about ten seconds, playing a university student with a lung disease, which made me feel really weird when I watched it? Yeah, that one.

I wish I could just scan this entire magazine and show it to you all. Despite the lack of Last Embrace, there is so much cool stuff in here. I'm excited to own this issue, which to me is a piece of history. Let's get on to some photos.

Here is the spread featuring The Last Embrace. The title is the first on the list on the left-hand page.

the gloves are more for my protection than the magazine's - pieces of it were flaking off in my lap

Here's a feature on Yoshiko Yamaguchi. I tried to run this through Google Translate multiple times but it was coming out absolute garbage; hopefully this photo is clear enough that you can read it for yourself if you happen to read kanji (I can read kana but that doesn't really get me anywhere with this).

Here's the feature on Mr. Pu:

The machine translation on this was a bit better. It reads something like:

   "It goes without saying that Taizo Yokoyama's manga is currently being serialized in Mainichi Shimbun. This is a film adaptation of 'Pu-san', which is mixed with 'Miss Ganko', a manga serialized in Sunday Mainichi by the same author. Also in manga, there are various types of manga, including current events manga and reading manga that are appealing to children, but Yokoyama's manga has a fan base among the intelligentsia class due to its unique style and satirical nature. This characteristic is clearly reflected in 'Pu-san'.

   The inconsistent and fragmented manga was compiled into a script by Natsuto Toshikawa, with the cooperation of Kon Ichikawa and radio writer Shigeaki Nagaki, and Ichikawa directed it. An urban comedy with sophistication.

   How to make use of the humor and satire of the manga - Yūnosuke Itō as Noro, who plays the role of Pu-san, and Kang, who plays the role of Ganko. Ganko is played by Koshiji Fubuki, and while Ganko is a trickster, Noro is a humble teacher and shows off his good-natured demeanor and timidity. The depiction of Yūnosuke Itō's humble demeanor as he is bullied by the turbulent waves of the world seems both funny and sad.

   According to the script, rather than the satirical nature of Yokoyama's manga, I can sense more strongly his intention to depict the 'absolute grace' of the good little citizen Noro in a comedic style.

In addition to Itō and Koshiji, Yoko Sugi, Keiju Kobayashi, Kaoru Yachigusa, Hiroshi Koizumi, and Isao Kimura, Fujiwara Kamatari, Daisuke Katō, Sakae Miyoshi also appear. Produced by Masumi Fujimoto. Cinematography by Choichi Nakai. Music by Toshiro Mayuzumi. [Toho Movies]"

Finally, here are a few of the cute little illustrations that I found throughout the magazine:

cool tattoo idea if you're a girl who bikes

"over there"

Stay tuned for more Kinejun issues. I got a part-time job so I can afford to do this stuff more often.

キネマ旬報 1979年10月下旬号 / Kinema Junpo, Late October 1979 Issue

I won this on Yahoo! Auctions, although I don't think "won" is the right word to use, considering that literally no one but me bid on it. 

Anyway, if kinenote.com is to be believed, this is the only article Kinejun has run that is entirely about Akihiko Hirata, not just a movie he was in. The occasion appears to have been a re-release of many major Godzilla films and other Toho tokusatsu works that year (which was the 25th anniversary of the first Godzilla film.) I'm not sure if this has ever been uploaded online, either as scans or just the text, so I'm including both the original in Japanese and a machine translation which I have typed up and made more readable by fixing pronouns, sentence structure, etc.; the kind of stuff that gets garbled in machine translations. I've been over it a couple of times, and it's still not very good, but it's something. The photographer is credited as Koji Nishikawa, who I'm assuming also did the interviewing and wrote the article.

Visualize me cringing while trying very hard not to break the spine by putting this in my scanner...

_____________

The film opens. The familiar music by Akira Ifukube begins to play. The Toho logo appears. The names of the staff, including producer Tomoyuki Tanaka and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, are listed. The names of the actors follow, and finally director Ishirō Honda appears. All the while, loud applause rings out intermittently throughout the theater. This is the scene at the Nichigeki Theater, where Toho's best special effects films were shown all at once, under the title "Godzilla Movie Collection [All August]". 

The last screening, which featured older films, was particularly lively. The audience was a diverse bunch, from elementary and middle school students to the kind of old men you might see at a film center, to young housewives with small children. They all gave generous applause to the screen. They clapped when the spaceship came out, and clapped again when the robot appeared. The children joined in, clapping. They seemed at first to be clapping without knowing what was going on, but they did know what was going on, shouting things like "Moguera will show up soon!" Kids these days study even old films as well.

I myself was moved to tears by the aerial combat scene in Battle in Outer Space, which I saw again for the first time in a long time. The excitement of seeing rocket fighter planes modeled after the experimental X155 aircraft of the time take off from the pages of boys' manga and fantasy drawings and engage in actual battles in out space on the screen is indescribable. Moreover, this is merely a dream imagined by the Japanese, which is why it is far more exciting than something like Star Wars. I could go on and on about this, so I'll stop here.

The actor who received the most applause at the "Godzilla Movie Collection" at the Nichigeki was Akihiko Hirata.

 - "That's what I heard. I got a letter from a fan saying 'Hirata was a [great actor]'. I was puzzled, thinking that was a strange thing to do. [laughs]"

Hirata appeared in 7 of the 15 Godzilla films alone. Including other works, he has appeared in about 30 Toho special effects films. [I asked] "Have you seen the overseas version of Godzilla?"

- "Yes, I have. I was surprised to hear that I speak good English [laughs]. During the peak of Godzilla movies, I received a lot of fan mail from America and Southeast Asia."

Recently, he says he has been receiving fan mail and doujinshi from all over the country. There are also countless magazines featuring Godzilla movies on racks. When I showed one to Hirata, he said, "Oh, that brings back memories, a [...]¹monster movie... the black-and-white, documentary-like feel is very powerful. I think the first Godzilla is the best. Godzilla's personality and appearance changed after it was in color." 

"When we were filming, we didn't know what we were doing, but now it feels like a classic. The filmmakers didn't know what they were doing, so they probably had three newcomers to it. The special effects scenes were done after the main story was almost finished, so it was even more confusing for us. Godzilla appeared, but when they told me to look at him, I didn't know where to look [laughs]." 

"The thing I found difficult was the stop-motion animation of the [models]. [They] shot the Godzilla [model] by moving it little by little. The doll was about 1 meter (3 feet) tall".

I had never heard that stop-motion animation² was used in Godzilla. [I ask] if a new Godzilla movie were made, would you like to appear in it again?

 - "I'd like to appear in it again. But I'd like to see one that isn't made for children."

Hirata has played many roles as genius scientists, staring with Dr. Serizawa in Godzilla. In the latest film in the series, [his character, Shinzo Mafune] even won a Nobel Prize.

  - "I'm actually not good at science," he says with a wry smile.

In war movies, he plays an officer. In Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, he wears an eyepatch like Dr. Serizawa and plays a one-eyed soldier. This kind of thing really suits him.

  - "There are a lot of them, aren't there? Is that right? I wonder. I still remember something that Yoshikata Yoda told me before. He said 'there are no actors who can play ordinary people'. I thought I could do anything, but I ended up playing a lot of serious roles."

That's because, when you hear Hirata's background, he's quite far from an ordinary person. Born in Gyeongseong, Korea³ in 1927, he returned to Japan before he even knew it. He received a strict, Spartan education and entered the Tokyo Army Cadet School.

  - "I had no intention of becoming a soldier at all. When I was a child, I admired Beethoven⁴, and I wanted to be a composer. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to go to Tokyo University and become a businessman. My older brother tried to get into military school and failed both times. Yes, it's difficult after all. Then, a distant relative was an army general, so someone had to become a soldier, and I was chosen. I applied, reluctantly, and I got in..."

His older brother is Yoshiki Onoda, a director currently active in TV after working for Shintoho. After graduating from military school, Hirata went on to the Army Academy just before the end of the war. There was a plan to move the Imperial Headquarters into the mountains of Nagano in preparation for the mainland battle, and he was training at the foot of Mt. Asama as a guard [as] he was an elite soldier.⁵ [I ask] "So, when the war ended..."

 - "Well, that was a blank period. Of course, I thought I would die before the war ended."

He returned home in a daze. After graduating from First High School and the law department of the University of Tokyo, he joined [Tokyo Boeki] (later Mitsubishi). He said that he never wanted to serve a government official again, so he joined a private company.

 - "I was pure-bred in the military, isolated from the outside world, and was only taught to die for the country and the emperor, so I didn't know anything. It's a strange story, but I didn't know anything about sex. I guess this goes on tape... I didn't even know what a wet dream was[...]⁶"

In reaction to that lifestyle, after entering the University of Tokyo, he didn't study much, but instead devoted himself to theater and dance. He made his debut at the May Festival, and was called a hammy actor.⁷ At first, he was quite calm, thinking that this was just how it was. His house was used as a dormitory for Shintoho staff and actors, so he started to associate with people in the film industry, and while he was a student, he worked part-time as an assistant director. His first film was Lynching, directed by Nobuo Nakagawa, in which Yoshiko Kuga appeared alongside Ryō Ikebe. Kuga is now Hirata's wife.

 - "She's short, so when she talked to Ryō, I put her on a platform. I had to hold the platform as hard as I could, it's so ridiculous [laughs]. I remember that, but she doesn't remember it at all."

[I ask him] how they met.

 - "We worked together on Hiroshi Inagaki's Siege of Osaka Castle. We went to Gotemba for filming, and the weather was so bad it was extended by about 10 days. During that time, we played mahjongg to kill time, and we became friends, and that was it."

Hirata is a former army alumnus from Tokyo University. Kuga is the daughter of a former duke. It's a dramatic setting that reminds me of Gone With the Wind, in which Hirata played Ashley...

 - "That's not true. He was a poor duke, and since the aristocracy was abolished, his title is worthless. When we're at home, we're always wearing rags. I say "you should behave a little better, you're being disrespectful to your husband." When people come over, we get in trouble and panic. We're like a beggar couple [laughs]."

When they're at home, they just sit around doing nothing. Hirata is reading a book in silence. His wife is talking to herself. "I see, I see," Hirata nods nonchalantly.

They're happy. Their wedding anniversary is - "October 9, 1961," she answers immediately. They go outside to take a photo. Hirata's figure, with his back straight and his slow strides, would look like a scene from a movie if he were in a military uniform.

 - "I can't get rid of old habits..."

___

1 The word here translates literally to "waterfall", so I'm assuming it's being used metaphorically, but I'm not sure what it means in this context.

2 In the original text this is referred to in kana as "dynamation".

3 Known as Keijo at the time, this is now in Seoul.

4 Same birthday.

5 I mean, he wasn't quite 18 when the war ended, but okay.

6 I'm not gonna be the one to translate the rest of this sentence for the first time ever. It's not weird or anything, but... yeah, no.

7 The original word used here was "daikon", like the radish, which is kind of a colloquial term to refer to a ham actor.