1st Anime w/Voice Acting - Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka
Aug 28, 2021 3:04:58 GMT
lammyvox, Kafka, and 6 more like this
Post by exo on Aug 28, 2021 3:04:58 GMT
"Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka", translated to "The World of Power and Women", was a 1933 Japanese animation that was the first to include voice acting and cel animation, following the inclusion of the new technology in live action films such as The Jazz Singer. It is an integral piece of film history, which seemingly, has been lost to time.
Directed by Kenzo Masaoka, written by Tadao Ikeda, and produced by Shiro Kido with the company Shochiku. The plot synopsis, according to Wikipedia, is as follows:
"The protagonist is a father of four children. His wife is 180 centimetres (5.9 ft) tall, and weighs 120 kilograms (260 lb) due to her incredibly large physique. Because he is constantly being henpecked at home, he becomes involved in an affair with a typist at his company and accidentally tells his wife about it while talking in his sleep. After obtaining additional evidence of the affair, she goes to confront both her husband and the typist at her husband's office."
The film found a lot of success in Japan. This was partially because voice acting was not an actual career at this time, and Masaoka therefore hired famous live action actors, creating a draw to the film.
What is odd about the film is the apparent lack of information available regarding it. In my discovery and subsequent research, I found search results numbering in the tens. Far less than I would expect for a film so important to movie and animation history. At the bottom of the post are the articles and sources I found, some from the Wayback machine.
The film supposedly received an honor of being listed as the "Best of Best" by the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival. However, the JMAF website has a full archive of the awards and honors given for each annual festival, and shows the 12th ceremony happening in 2008, of which there is no mention of the film. Instead, I was able to find an article written by someone named Koji Yamamura, which simply explores the history of Japanimation, and only lists the film in a timeline at the end of the article. Again, both of these links are at the bottom.
Another thing I find odd is the fact that pictures of the film exist, despite there being supposedly no reels of the film left. The pictures are fairly good quality, and this tells me that at the very least, someone has access to some of the individual frames or illustrations, meaning there may be fragments of this film left to discover.
Personally, I really think this film should be looked into a bit more. I have only been able to uncover so much, but for what this film means to the history of Japanimation, more information should be known. All of the creators of this film are dead by now, but there is always the chance that any of the people involved have children that have access to this film or remnants of it, and are simply unaware of any interest in its preservation from the rest of the film community. If anybody is able to find more on the film or is able to somehow contact any of the people that could have more information regarding the film, please let me know below.
References:
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikara_to_Onna_no_Yo_no_Naka
- www.allcinema.net/cinema/130376
- web.archive.org/web/20110907005034/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/museum/archives/bestofbest/200609/
- animation.filmarchives.jp/en/writer19.html
- www.midnighteye.com/features/pioneers-of-japanese-animation-at-pifan-part-1/
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenz%C5%8D_Masaoka
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadao_Ikeda
- prabook.com/web/shiro.kido/3719293
- www.wikiwand.com/fr/Chikara_to_onna_no_yo_no_naka
- web.archive.org/web/20110907005034/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/museum/archives/bestofbest/200609/
(Above is the supposed award listed in the Wikipedia article. Below is the website's current record of the 12th ceremony.)
- archive.j-mediaarts.jp/en/festival/2008/
Directed by Kenzo Masaoka, written by Tadao Ikeda, and produced by Shiro Kido with the company Shochiku. The plot synopsis, according to Wikipedia, is as follows:
"The protagonist is a father of four children. His wife is 180 centimetres (5.9 ft) tall, and weighs 120 kilograms (260 lb) due to her incredibly large physique. Because he is constantly being henpecked at home, he becomes involved in an affair with a typist at his company and accidentally tells his wife about it while talking in his sleep. After obtaining additional evidence of the affair, she goes to confront both her husband and the typist at her husband's office."
The film found a lot of success in Japan. This was partially because voice acting was not an actual career at this time, and Masaoka therefore hired famous live action actors, creating a draw to the film.
What is odd about the film is the apparent lack of information available regarding it. In my discovery and subsequent research, I found search results numbering in the tens. Far less than I would expect for a film so important to movie and animation history. At the bottom of the post are the articles and sources I found, some from the Wayback machine.
The film supposedly received an honor of being listed as the "Best of Best" by the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival. However, the JMAF website has a full archive of the awards and honors given for each annual festival, and shows the 12th ceremony happening in 2008, of which there is no mention of the film. Instead, I was able to find an article written by someone named Koji Yamamura, which simply explores the history of Japanimation, and only lists the film in a timeline at the end of the article. Again, both of these links are at the bottom.
Another thing I find odd is the fact that pictures of the film exist, despite there being supposedly no reels of the film left. The pictures are fairly good quality, and this tells me that at the very least, someone has access to some of the individual frames or illustrations, meaning there may be fragments of this film left to discover.
Personally, I really think this film should be looked into a bit more. I have only been able to uncover so much, but for what this film means to the history of Japanimation, more information should be known. All of the creators of this film are dead by now, but there is always the chance that any of the people involved have children that have access to this film or remnants of it, and are simply unaware of any interest in its preservation from the rest of the film community. If anybody is able to find more on the film or is able to somehow contact any of the people that could have more information regarding the film, please let me know below.
References:
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikara_to_Onna_no_Yo_no_Naka
- www.allcinema.net/cinema/130376
- web.archive.org/web/20110907005034/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/museum/archives/bestofbest/200609/
- animation.filmarchives.jp/en/writer19.html
- www.midnighteye.com/features/pioneers-of-japanese-animation-at-pifan-part-1/
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenz%C5%8D_Masaoka
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadao_Ikeda
- prabook.com/web/shiro.kido/3719293
- www.wikiwand.com/fr/Chikara_to_onna_no_yo_no_naka
- web.archive.org/web/20110907005034/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/museum/archives/bestofbest/200609/
(Above is the supposed award listed in the Wikipedia article. Below is the website's current record of the 12th ceremony.)
- archive.j-mediaarts.jp/en/festival/2008/
