SAUNDO-BAN
THE JAPANESE SILENT CINEMA GOES ELECTRIC

This programme explores a particular mode of Japanese silent cinema, the so-called saundo-ban – films that were shot as silent films, but released with a post-synchronized soundtrack, usually consisting of a music score, sound effects, and the occasional popular song. This mode of Japanese film production existed roughly between 1930 and 1938, and due to its hybrid nature, not silent, yet not fully sound, encouraged an active stylistic experimentation with both cinematic form and content. Many of Japan’s greatest and most famous directors, including Ozu, Shimizu, and Mizoguchi, shot saundo-ban films, as did lesser-known commercial filmmakers such as Hotei Nomura and Yasushi Sasaki, whose films achieved great popularity in Japan.
The saundo-ban was not only an aesthetic mode of production used during the conversion to sound. It was also utilized by directors such as Ozu as a way to limit the ability of the benshi (live narrator) to seize the narrative impetus of the film, and by studio heads such as Shochiku’s Shiro Kido, who used it to effectively oust the now-silenced benshi from the premier screens of the cities. In fact, “No Benshi – Full Volume” became the slogan printed on the programme leaflets of the Shochiku-run Teikoku gekijo, or the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo. In effect, the saundo-ban paved the way for the arrival of the Japanese sound film, while simultaneously constituting a mode of aesthetic expression that endured for several years after the Japanese cinema had completed its transition to sound, having a second life at minor studios that lacked the funds to make the transition to sound and instead carved out a niche by creating saundo-ban films, usually in the jidai-geki period-film genre.
This year we present an initial foray into the world of saundo-ban films, screening two examples, to be followed by a more substantial programme in 2018. Ozu’s Tokyo no yado shows the artistic potential of the late silent form, subtly influenced by contemporary developments in sound cinema. Meanwhile, Hotei Nomura’s musically infused potent melodrama Shima no musume explores the variety of popular modes in this transitional period, ranging from melodrama to comedy, and supplementing the dramatic traditions of silent cinema with a distinctive, sometimes playful use of music and effects.

Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström

This programme is co-organized by Shochiku, and is generously supported by Kinoshita Group.

SHIMA NO MUSUME
[FIGLIA DELL’ISOLA/ISLAND GIRL]
Hotei Nomura (JP 1933)
Dom/Sun 1 – 12:00 – Teatro Verdi

TOKYO NO YADO
[UNA LOCANDA DI TOKYO/AN INN IN TOKYO]
Yasujiro Ozu (JP 1935)
Gio/Thu 5 – 9:00 – Teatro Verdi