A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan (Volume 64)

Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies #64

by Aaron Gerow

Kinugasa Teinosuke's 1926 film, A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeiji), is celebrated as one of the masterpieces of silent cinema. It was an independently produced, experimental, avant-garde work from Japan whose brilliant use of cinematic technique was equal to if not superior to that of contemporary European cinema. Those studying Japan, focusing on the central involvement of such writers as Yokomitsu Riichi and the Nobel Prize winner Kawabata Yasunari, have seen it as a pillar of the close relationship in the Taisho era between film and artistic modernism, as well as a marker of the uniqueness of prewar Japanese film culture. But is this film really what it seems to be? Using meticulous research on the film's production, distribution, exhibition, and reception, as well as close analysis of the film's shooting script (which is not the script currently attributed to Kawabata) and shooting notes recently made available, Aaron Gerow draws a new picture of this complex work, one revealing a film divided between experiment and convention, modernism and melodrama, the image and the word, cinema and literature, conflicts that play out in the story and structure of the film and its context. Including a detailed analysis of the film and translations of contemporary reviews and shooting notes for scenes missing from the current print, Gerow's book offers provocative insight into the fascinating film A Page of Madness was - and still is - and into the struggles over this work that tried to articulate the place of cinema in Japanese society and modernity.

Genres: Film, Japan, Japanese Literature

130 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

My name is also listed as Aaron Andrew Gerow. I teach Japanese and East Asian cinema and culture at Yale University in the USA. My most recent books are Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925; Kitano Takeshi; and A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan. I've also written the Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies with Abe Mark Nornes. Before coming to Yale, I spent nearly 12 years in Japan working for the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and teaching at Yokohama National University and Meiji Gakuin University. I have published numerous works in English, Japanese and other languages on such topics as Japanese early cinema, contemporary directors, film genre, censorship, Japanese manga, and cinematic representations of minorities. I wrote film reviews for the Daily Yomiuri newspaper for nearly 12 years and selected the best ten Japanese films of the year for Eiga geijutsu, one of Japan's longest running film magazines.

Reviews

[Henrique Quadros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Li como parte da pesquisa pra um projeto. Aaron Gerow elabora o quão complexo e não-monolítico é o subtexto e contexto do filme Kurutta Ichipeiji (A Page of Madness/ Uma Página de Loucura). Apresentando as vertentes artísticas e filosóficas que rodearam a criação do filme e a recepção da obra no Japão dos anos 20, o autor expressa bem claramente que não se trata puramente um filme avant-garde e surrealista, nem tampouco de uma realização puramente convencional. O que fica bem claro é que o filme, assim como a modernidade Japonesa do período pré-guerra, é a reflexão de diversos elementos filosóficos em conflito que permite inúmeras interpretações que não deixam de estar corretas nem erradas. No final de contas você entende que a genialidade de Kurutta Ichipeiji é o tanto que o filme se permite ser um "ambiente" de reflexão e questionamento sobre não só a própria obra mas o momento histórico em que o povo Japonês se encontrava.

[Aaron]

This book was never published. If you want to read my book on Kinugasa Teinosuke's 1926 masterpiece, A Page of Madness, please look at my A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan.