Beyond Jidai-geki: Daiei Studios and the Study ofTransnational Japanese Cinema

Draft of article published in Journal of Korean and Japanese Cinema 3.1 2012

Introduction

The aim of this article is to look more closely at Daiei

studio’s activities in the post war international film

market, arguing that the company had ambitions well

beyond what some commentators see as the exoticisation of

Japanese cinema through the circulation of jidai-geki films

such as Rashomon (Kurosawa 1950), Ugetsu (Mizoguchi 1953)

and Gate of Hell (Kinugasa 1953) (Miyao 2007: 275). Instead I

suggest that the studio wanted to sell a wide range of

films to many different territories in the global film

marketplace. One of the reasons that Daiei’s intentions

have become obscured, however, is that several of their

ventures either performed very poorly or were not even

bought for distribution at all. This, I suggest, raises

methodological issues for the study of ‘transnational’

Japanese cinema with reception-based approaches unable to

uncover some of the historical complexities at stake.

In the space available I predominantly look at the

period from studio head, Nagata Masaichi’s, trip to the

United States in 1949 through to the problems associated

with the 70mm production, Buddha (Misumi 1961). From a

historiographical perspective, I also suggest that is

useful to look at a specific Japanese studio’s attitudes

and strategies towards the international market. In

regard to studies of transnational Japanese cinema this

leads to several useful questions. What effects, if any,

did an interest in foreign markets have on film

production? How did each studio approach selling their

films? What kind of overseas business partnerships did

each company develop? Were foreign markets even deemed of

financial value at all? Despite early festival awards for

The Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi 1952), Shintōhō, for instance,

demonstrated little interest in international sales,

focussing instead on safeguarding its domestic security.

Daiei and Nagata Masaichi

Further historiographical questions arise when thinking

about the role of studio head Nagata Masaichi within the

Daiei company. Although Nagata appears to have been a

hands-on producer in many of the international projects

discussed, there remain questions as to his level of

involvement in the company’s domestic planning. As well

as his business ties to the worlds of horse-racing and

baseball, his biographical history is further complicated

by clandestine connections to the LDP (Liberal Democratic

Party) and the criminal underworld.

Given the nickname `rappa otoko` (bugle man), the

loquacious Nagata was always keen to emphasize his

entrepreneurial credentials, enthusiastically engaging

with both the Japanese and overseas press. Expounding the

values of `PR`, two autobiographies were also published

under Nagata`s name, Eigadō Masshigura (1953) and Eiga Jigakyō

(1957). These were followed by a charitable biography by

Japanese film historian Tanaka Junichirō (1962). Whilst

Tanaka`s book does cover some of the controversy of

Buddha, Nagata`s international failures receive only

minor coverage in these works.

Nagata’s biographical narratives also tend to

foreground those activities that transcend the lowly film

industry. Here his successful effort to clear his name of

war crimes charges is marked as a heroic achievement

receiving the attention of those at the very top of the

Occupation hierarchy, including General MacArthur himself

(Tanaka 1962: 106-10). His 1949 international trip was

also notable as the first time any Japanese citizen

outside the military or civil service had travelled to

the United States during the Occupation with much also

made of Nagata`s contacts with Joseph Dodge, the

architect of Japan`s post-war financial stabilisation

policy (Tanaka 1962: 111-8).

Daiei and the American Film Industry

Beyond visiting country clubs with Joseph Dodge, Nagata`s

trip to the United States saw him develop two of the

strategies that Daiei would persistently use in the

company`s pursuit of foreign markets. In the first

instance, Nagata made alliances with foreign film

companies such as the Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn

studios. The reason these two studios were particularly

amenable was because neither were members of the MPAA

(Motion Picture Association of America). Under the film

quota system of the Occupation and post-Occupation

periods, only MPAA members were given import licences for

Japan meaning neither Disney nor Goldwyn had direct

access to the Japanese market. Indeed, until Nagata

signed a contract with Disney during his trip and

petitioned its validity on his return to Japan, import

licences for American films were also withheld from the

Japanese studios. As well as animations, Daiei would

later import live-action Disney films such as The Living

Desert (Algar 1953) and as part of the two companies’

connections Disney distributed some of Daiei’s films

overseas in return. In the second instance, as well as

investing in Westrex sound equipment, Nagata also took

the opportunity to visit Eastman`s facilities in

Rochester. After Japanese photographic companies failed

to match Nagata`s standards, Daiei subsequently licenced

Eastman colour to use in the studio’s productions,

including internationally popular films such as Gate of Hell.

In both these instances I argue that some of the

frameworks for the subsequent export of Japanese films

were thus already in place almost two years before the

festival success of Rashomon. Indeed with Disney and

Goldwyn films often distributed by RKO Pictures, this may

have helped Daiei win a distribution contract with the

Hollywood major after the film’s breakthrough.

Despite Nagata`s forward-thinking, Rashomon`s

victory at the Venice Film Festival was, nevertheless, a

genuine surprise as there was no company representative

in attendance at the 1951 event. The breakthrough of

Rashomon has been covered from various angles by Nygren

(2007) and Smith (2002), with a useful selection of

reviews collected by Richie (1972). I prefer here,

therefore, to look at Daiei`s activities after Rashomon

to see what assumptions were being made about this

success for further developing Daiei’s international

profile.

To this degree Nagata set about making films that

would appeal to international audiences and American

audiences in particular. This initial enthusiasm resulted

not in further jidai-geki but rather a series of modern day

dramas about Japanese-American relations. The first of

these, Forever My Love (Sloane 1951), saw the American

director Paul Sloane travelling to Japan. Here he was

assisted by respected Japanese director Ushihara Kiyohiko

who had met Sloane during a pre-war visit to Cecil B.

DeMille’s Culver studios (Ushihara 1968: 267). Forever My

Love also saw the arrival of unknown actor, and former

marine, Chris Drake. The tragic love story received

rather unfavourable reviews for its culture-clash themes

and earthquake finale, with Sloane criticised for his

presumptions about Japan (Ogi 1952: 66). Ushihara himself

also complained about the conflicting demands of Daiei,

an American backer in Japan, and a monitor from the CCD

(Civil Censorship Detachment) (Ushihara 1968: 268).

Apparently using contacts at Samuel Goldwyn studios

(Tanaka 1962: 162), Nagata was able to sign former child

star Margaret O’Brien to star in Girls Hand in Hand (Nakaki

1952) opposite Misora Hibari. It seems likely the script

was written specifically to suit the religious interests

of O’Brien, with her character successfully persuading

the Catholic Church to open an orphanage to help Marie

(Misora), her friends and their pet dog. Concluding with

O’Brien flying out of Japan, Girls Hand in Hand even closes

with a tearful Misora Hibari singing Ave Maria as her

American friend disappears into the clouds. Despite the

wartime popularity that had seen O’Brien win an Oscar in

Meet in Me in St Louis (Minnelli 1944), her career had faltered

as she moved into her teens. Although her visit to Japan

received newsreel and national press coverage, Girls Hand in

Hand was released with little fanfare. Beyond these two

productions, Richie (1982: 232) is convinced that I’ll Not

Forget the Song of Nagasaki (Tasaka, 1952) was also intended

for the American market and there is very little written

about Onna jirochō wakuwaku dōchū (Kato 1951), a Daiei-

produced western starring Kenne Duncan and Kasagi

Shizuko.

The failure of the international ambitions of these

films seems to have reinforced the importance of stable

relationships with foreign distributors for getting

Japanese films onto overseas screens. Although Goldwyn

did not have a distribution arm, Daiei subsequently made

deals with Walt Disney`s Buena Vista International for The

Phantom Horse (Shima 1955) and Princess Yang Kwei-Fei (Mizoguchi

1955). For many of its releases in Manhattan art cinemas,

Daiei also regularly used Edward Harrison Inc. Harrison,

a former press agent for RKO’s release of Rashomon (Balio

2010: 84), handled Daiei’s next festival success Ugetsu as

well as1954 Cannes winner, Gate of Hell.

One of the main focal points for the marketing of

Kinugasa’s film appears to have been the strong

connections made with the Japanese visual arts, tying in

with James Michener`s book on Japanese prints, The Floating

World (1954). With the film based on a play by former

Daiei chief Kikuchi Kan, it seems unlikely Gate of Hell was

made specifically for foreign audiences. Daiei, however,

surely had international hopes for its first feature-

length colour production by nominating a work that was

neither a critical nor a box office success in Japan for

the Cannes festival. After playing for over forty weeks

at Manhattan`s Guild Theatre, other Daiei colour films

followed Gate of Hell to American cinemas with The Golden

Demon (Shima 1954) preceding both The Phantom Horse and

Princess Yang Kwei-Fei. The fact that the films following Gate

of Hell consisted of a Meiji-mono (including a striking

baseball scene), a children`s film and an adaptation of a

classic Chinese historical romance suggest, however, that

Daiei was certainly interested in finding foreign markets

for a broad range of colour films beyond decorative jidai-

geki.

The Pursuit of International Trends

Two subsequent Nagata films from the 1950s aimed to

follow other international trends, the black-and-white

production Brooba (Suzuki1955) and the nature documentary

Shiroi Sanmyaku (Imamura 1957). Like Ushihara, Suzuki

Shigeyoshi had made some stylistically innovative films

during the 1920s and 30s, but was here simply employed to

make a generic clone of the American Tarzan series,

starring Japan’s own version of Johnny Weissmuller,

Hamaguchi Yoshiro. According to reports, some of the

filming was also completed using the facilities of Samuel

Goldwyn studios and even the nearby Los Angeles Botanical

Gardens. (Anon.1955: A11). Although the film is notable

for scenes featuring the African-American actor Woody

Strode, this particular production was made without an

American distributor in place and also made little impact

on the Japanese box office. This, however, might not even

have entirely surprised Nagata for despite the success of

Gate of Hell, the subsequent American releases of The Golden

Demon, Princess Yang Kwei-Fei and The Phantom Horse had all

earned a fraction of the former`s 1954 box office total.

Disregarding the failure of Brooba, Nagata`s

determination to follow recent international trends

continued. After Disney`s global success with The Living

Desert, Daiei financed documentary film-maker Imamura

Sadao`s project for a colour production about the

Japanese Alps. A much bigger production than anything

Imamura had been used to, this saw a crew of thirteen

filming across an entire year (Kinema Junpō 1957: 115-9).

Despite appearing at the 1957 Cannes film festival, the

film, however, made little international impact,

screening only in a small number of European countries.

Daiei`s production of two other Imamura documentaries

shot in India, Himitsu no kuni: Indō (1958) and The Long Nose

(1958), both made in conjunction with Run Run Shaw, also

met with little enthusiasm either in Japan or amongst

foreign buyers.

Beyond the Art Cinema Barrier

Despite early prize-winning success, as a businessman

Nagata was persistently concerned about the dependence on

film festivals for launching Japanese films overseas.

Several of the aforementioned films also appear to be

ways of trying to go beyond the so-called `art film

barrier` that limited the circulation of all foreign

language films travelling to the United States. With no

artistic pretensions Brooba was a genre-based effort

geared towards the double-bill market. Furthermore whilst

Shiroi Sanmyaku was an easily-dubbed nature documentary,

both The Phantom Horse and Brooba have many scenes with

limited dialogue also making them more suitable for

dubbing. Daiei additionally applied for a Production Code

seal for The Phantom Horse so it could be released as a

family film. The studio, of course, later tried to

capitalize on Toho`s success in producing kaiju (monster)

films, starting with Warning from Space (Shima 1956) but

most notably with the Gamera series. These, however,

generally met with less enthusiasm from major American

buyers than Honda Ishirō’s superior films and became more

a feature of foreign television screens than cinema

screens.

Daiei had also been actively seeking other

international markets for their films from the early

1950s. Whilst Hepatica (Tasaka 1951) had triumphed in India

after its appearance at the IFFI (International Film

Festival of India), most industry figures in Japan

thought that other areas of East and South-East Asia were

likely to prove the most secure source of box office

revenue for Japanese films albeit not offering the

potential riches of the American market. This was also

quite explicitly stated by Nagata himself (Tanaka 1962:

155). After a tour of non-Communist countries in East and

South-East Asia in 1953, Nagata subsequently formed the

South-East Asian Film Producers Association with Run Run

Shaw acting as vice-chairman. The major activity of the

association was to organize the South-East Asia Film

Festival (still in existence as the Asia Pacific Film

Festival). Whilst the history and politics of this

festival deserves its own treatment, it was certainly

seen by Nagata as a tool for Japanese films to expand

into other Asian markets (Tanaka 1962: 155) with the

inaugural festival seeing the top prize awarded to The

Golden Demon.

As well as the Shaws, Daiei also had business

dealings with the French subsidiary, Pathé Overseas.

Together with Anatole Dauman`s Argos Films, Pathé

Overseas and Daiei were amongst the backers for Hiroshima

Mon Amour (Resnais 1959). It is, of course, likely that

the end product was not exactly to Nagata’s taste given

the way some Japanese posters for the film featured the

two stars embracing above a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

This well-known production was, however, only one part of

the two companies` relationship. Pathé Overseas also

distributed a number of Daiei’s more artistic productions

in France including films by Mizoguchi Kenji and Ichikawa

Kon. Some of these were also released in the Studio

Étoile, a short-lived exhibition venture between Pathé

Overseas and Daiei close to the Champs D’Elysée. The

further mapping of Japanese film exports to other areas

of Europe should also reveal the role Pathé Overseas had

in circulating a range of Japanese films, including some

by other studios, to areas outside France.

Finally, despite giving a sympathetic view of

events, Tanaka`s 1962 biography opens with the

difficulties afflicting Nagata’s worldwide ambitions for

Buddha. Whilst Tanaka would not have been able to report

fully on the international box office failings of the

film, the political problems caused by the production

were already apparent. Again following international

film-making trends by moving into 70mm production, the

choice of subject matter evidently proved far more

contentious than Nagata anticipated. With Hollywood

companies already using various widescreen formats for

historical epics, a number of biblical films such as The

Robe (Koster 1953) and The Ten Commandments (DeMille 1956)

had proved spectacularly popular in the global film

marketplace. In order to follow this religious pattern

Nagata, himself from a Buddhist family, put a biopic of

Buddha`s life into production. Hoping that the film would

have universal appeal, he instead found himself under

intense fire from Buddhist representatives from Asia,

including several ambassadors to Japan (Tanaka 1962: 10-

11). Beyond perceived factual inaccuracies, many were

offended by the idea of making a film biopic about the

life of the religious figure at all. Although a re-edited

version did play in a number of international

territories, in Europe and America it was only ever

bought by smaller distributors sometimes long after the

film`s Japanese release. Daiei`s further attempts to

produce 70mm epics in the form of The Great Wall (Tanaka

1962) again fell well short of expectations both in the

domestic and international marketplace.

Conclusions and propositions for further study

Whilst Nagata’s wartime politicking has received some

attention by High (2003: 316-20), there is still perhaps

much to be written about his murky connections to crime

lord Kodama Yoshio and senior LDP member Kōno Ichirō.

Indeed his embarrassing connections to the former were

brought to public attention with the 1961 Bushūtetsudō

bribery scandal. In an earlier roundtable with Nagata and

representatives from other studios in Kinema Junpō there

were also several voices very sceptical about the

business development of Daiei (1959: 74-80). With all

Nagata’s public emphasis on his international activities,

the company lagged behind other studios, most notably

Tōei, in the competitive rush to a double-bill system.

With much of Nagata’s interests seemingly directed

elsewhere, the responsibility for the domestic market

would most likely have been the preserve of other company

executives such as Matsumoto Tsūmu although there would

clearly have been an issue with Nagata channelling so

much of the company’s resources for his own ambitious

productions.

The period from Buddha’s failure until Daiei’s

bankruptcy in 1971 evidently failed to warrant another

Nagata biography. Nagata’s emphasis on big films and

international films, however, continued with productions

such as the Majin series and the Russian co-production The

Little Fugitive (Kinugasa 1966). Interestingly, however, he

was not the producer of the popular Zatōichi series, also

exported to other countries in Asia. His interest in big

films also saw him appeal, evidently unsuccessfully, to

the Japanese government to provide bridging loans to

cover the gap between film production and the return of

international box office receipts which could sometimes

take up to three years (Nagata 1964: 42).

To study the ‘transnational’ dimensions of post-war

Japanese cinema I think it is essential to take account

of macro-level processes such as the global dominance of

Hollywood films, international import quotas and even EEC

(European Economic Community) policies encouraging member

co-productions at the expense of potential Japan-Europe

productions. The Japanese government’s relative

disinterest in Japanese film export is another important

factor. Combining this macro-level view with studio-level

research, it is arguable that Nagata’s emphasis on big

productions was actually the best opportunity for

international success albeit a risky strategy which

drained resources from domestic productions. A studio-

level historiography might, for instance, also reveal

whether Tōhō’s strategy of investing in more overseas

cinemas was any more successful than Daiei’s plans. Such

an approach is also useful for analysing the balance of

power between different self-interested commercial

companies. It is revealing, for instance, that Disney

seem to lose interest in ties with Daiei as soon as

Nagata is able to negotiate with the Japanese government

to release the American studio`s frozen box office

remittances. Whilst Nagata had such a dominant role in

Daiei’s international activities, it would be interesting

to see if there are similar patterns with other powerful

studio heads such as Tōei’s Ōkawa Hiroshi.

Although there were other intriguing rumours of

floundering distribution deals and aborted Daiei co-

productions, I hope I have nevertheless demonstrated that

Daiei, with Nagata in a dominant role, was not simply

interested in sending jidai-geki films to America and

Western Europe and that criticisms of exoticisation

should be laid instead on gatekeepers, distributors

and/or audiences. At a methodological level I hope this

short piece has also demonstrated the potential

usefulness of a studio-based approach to transnational

Japanese cinema and suggestive of similar studies for the

other major film studios.

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Keywords

Transnational Daiei Nagata Masaichi Walt Disney Rashomon Shaw Brothers

Abstract

This article looks at the strategies employed by Daiei studios for increasing their share of the international film market during the 1950s and 60s. Rather than relyingon the ‘exoticism’ of Rashomon (Kurosawa 1950) or Gate of Hell (Kinugasa1953), Daiei instead had ambitions for a wide variety of productions, few of which were actually jidai-geki films. As well as importing the latest technology, Daiei, under studio head Nagata Masaichi, also attempted to foster mutually beneficial relationships with a range of overseas film companies. From a methodological perspective I argue that it is useful to focus on a specific studio in order to think about individual companies’ approaches to domestic and international markets as well as their power relations with international collaborators.

Biography

Christopher Howard recently completed a Ph.D. in Media and Film Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His thesis looked at transnational film connections in Japanese cinema during the 1950s. He is currently Visiting Lecturer in Media Studies at the Department of Literature and Journalism, Chongqing University, Sichuan Province, China.

Address

Dr Christopher Howard9 Norfolk CloseMaldonEssexCM9 6BAUnited Kingdom

E-mail: chrishowardcq@hotmail.co.uk