THE JAPANESE HOLLYWOOD

foreign [Music] true television series in association with Bing Crosby Productions across the Seven Seas combining the different worlds of Travel and Adventure and presenting tonight at home abroad colorful true travels to the four corners of the Earth good evening ladies and gentlemen versus Jack Douglass and this is Hollywood the place that made its name synonymous with Motion Pictures the Hollywood that claimed more stars than there are in the skies and treated its stars like figures of History casting their Footprints in concrete and blazing their names even on the city's sidewalks there was a time when Hollywood made more movies than the rest of the world combined the film capital of the Earth but today Hollywood has had to take a back seat to another Hollywood the Japanese Hollywood a complete comparison between the two major Hollywoods one in Japan and the other in America cannot be made in just 30 minutes we have tried however to pack in as many similarities and dissimilarities as possible in the brief time we have but in both Hollywoods the awesome nightmare the filmmakers face is television and the 64 multi-million dollar question they ask is can movies and television decision coexist these statistics seem to say no but statistics have been wrong before it's possible even today for example for a strong motion picture to gross more in a year than Gone With the Wind gross in three years in the final analysis only the public will make the ultimate decision here once before in our series on a different story Tokyo in terms of population the biggest city on the face of the earth and the lifeline of the Japanese Motion Picture industry an industry which today produces some 500 Motion Pictures a year an average of almost one and a half feature films a day India by the way is second and Hollywood isn't even in the top three but the Japanese moviegoers still wait in line for hours to see the relatively few films Hollywood makes such as the 101 Dalmatians here's the Western oldie but a good one She Wore a Yellow Ribbon starring John Wayne they idolize him in Japan The Hustler with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason and al-sid with Lauren and Heston King Khan Vs Godzilla was produced in Japan and incidentally those enormous cutouts are six stories high from among these many Japanese moviegoers who like American films we interviewed five who speak English they are Mr Dave hoshimiya miss kimie tosho Mr Ted hasagawa Miss siroko furuichi and Mr hitoshi nikaido Mr hoshimaya which type of American Film do you like best the action or Romance I would say both types both action and romantic uh I like your romantic one because I'm a romantic person no particular preference I like them both it depends on the story both of them it depends on actors and the quality of the film I like musical this do you prefer a happy or a tragic ending in a film story I would say since I'm basically a happy sort I'd prefer a happy ending I prefer a tragic ending and I think that the general characteristic of Japanese people and also I think that's more true to the life again this depends on the story oh I like happy ending because it makes me happy of course I like happy ending today who is your favorite American movie star Richard Widmark I liked late Humphrey Bogart I can forget his performance in a movie which is called katablanca Carrie Grant Spencer Tracy Andrew G Robinson Irene Dunn many many others well I like with Mark as an actor and as an actress Audrey Hepburn no special favorite third what is your favorite all-time American movie Gone With the Wind is my favorite I liked Limelight I like the story I like the music and I think Mr Charlie Chaplin did wonderful job I can't forget his eyes in the movie a film I saw recently called pillow talk with Rock Hudson and Doris Day I enjoyed this film very much Gone with the Wind West Side Story ER or South Pacific best despite their Devotion to American films the Japanese still prefer their own movies by a white margin now the reason has nothing to do with language or national pride but with the wide variety of Japanese films available to the public as typified by these posters French films dubbed in Japanese are also popular together with a better class of Italian films but in competing for the foreign markets Hong Kong is Japan's major rival the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong is Asia's biggest producing company outside Japan it specializes in Cantonese and Mandarin films starring actresses like Miss Angelina Hall and these films get a big play throughout Asia and even in Japan itself with Miss ho is our guide we visited the outdoor set for a new Shaw Brothers film The Scarlet mink reputedly the costliest film ever made in Asia this entire set still under construction was made especially for this one film next let's go over to song stage number five way they are shooting the lady and the house boy despite Miss Ho's assurance that we would be welcomed on the set and we were we felt that the actors were quite self-conscious so we tiptoed away the plot by the way smacked of the Eternal triangle thank you for coming please come again soon goodbye the advertising insignias of Japan's major Studios also give an indication of their size or type of picture they specialize in mikatsu is famed for its superb production facilities Touhou is best known for lavish Productions it's the biggest company in Japan is noted for the quality of its actors producers and directors this is the studio that produced rashaman and Gates of Hell among many others shotsikou is the studio that has specialized in glamorizing the traditional Japanese Drama and toei runs the gamut from Modern Day films to the traditional samurai stories it's the biggest of the studios devoted exclusively to Motion Pictures [Music] any tourist to Japan is welcome to visit the toei studios and we took advantage of this long-standing Arrangement but take a tip and wear comfortable walking shoes because an actual acreage toei is as big as the biggest studio in Hollywood and then some [Music] toy is a self-sufficient as the studio can get and of special importance is the wig making Department these wigs are used mainly in the classic japanese drama such as what we might call the Samurai pictures wig making in Japan is a highly specialized art and these men are among the highest paid of all the technicians hang the wigs and also make up it's the custom in the Japanese film industry for men to make up men and women to make up women and no star is too big to break that custom [Music] silent stages we watched the filming of a typical Samurai movie which corresponds to the American Western melodrama the small hero there in the center is a girl disguised as a boy and sure enough while strolling through the woods he or she is attacked by robbers and naturally he or she puts up a gallon fight until the director hollers cut off during the timeout the lighting has changed and the hero's hair is neatly calmed again this man is also a good guy [Music] all right he hears the shouting and fighting and rushes to the rescue a sort of Samurai Robin Hood of old the odds be hanged he takes on all comers and in no time at all the last of the robbers takes a whack in the back that flattens him out at least until the next scene here on this modest Street on the outskirts of Tokyo we visited the home of one of Japan's most celebrated character actors a man who has been called the Adolph Manju and Walter Brennan of Japan he's been a movie star for 40 years we meet Mr tatsuo Saito welcome to Japan it's a pleasure to have you in my home may I introduce my wife Mrs Saito and my little kid named the pigeon now my work in Japanese the motion picture industry began 1924 that time was The Silent Age of course and usually we have been made 400 pictures about of course in here as my individual actor I made 35 or 40 pictures in a year of course some of them had to be made in Rush within three days wow most of them I mean though the Japanese pictures which we have made in that age Melody Durham and thrustic comedy like oh you had but some years ago you know that the Keystone comedy which being stirring Ben Tarpin who are some of your favorite American actors and actresses well Frederick merch powder meaning oh Dr Gary Cooper wonderful actor Joseph cotton Walter Houston oh she was wonderful after an actresses Betty Davis now has your television hurt the Japanese film industry since television we imported Japanese movie industry getting you know lower and lower instead what do you say here television is really a bit competitor of Japanese emotion picture industry we thank these saito's and waited until the great actor had finished dressing so that we could follow him to the studios of Japan's powerful television network the NHK which is government owned we were greatly impressed with the quality of the cameras the skill of the technicians and the size and Equipment of the studios were as good and as well equipped as the finest TV studios that we have Mr Saito has had his own TV series in Japan and is always in demand as a guest star he takes great pride in the fact that despite his age he has been able to make the transition from movies to television and that he is a top box office attraction in both mediums camera Japan's TV actors seemed to relax more than our performers there's no horseplay just a relaxed Oriental air of cordiality particular Studio of NHK TV is so big that half a dozen other TV programs are able to rehearse at the same time and everyone we talked to said yes TV was hurting the movie industry [Music] among those who expressed this opinion is Mr Paul mizukami who represents 20th Century Fox of Hollywood in Japan we asked Mr mizukami what restrictions and problems are faced by the American Studios Distributing films in Japan Mr misukami I'm happy to be a guest of your program Mr Douglas an in answer to your first question the American distributor the American Motion Picture distributor has several restrictions and problems facing him in his work in Japan first the number of pictures that we can import into Japan is limited the number of prints that we can bring in per subject is limited and the number of and or amount of money that we can remit to our home office is also Limited one of the biggest problems facing the distributor here in Japan is elsewhere in the world is television [Music] well the Japanese love their own pictures which is proved by the fact that 70 percent of the gross theatrical Revenue in Japan comes from the Japanese pictures and the Japanese most speaking industry is I think the most prolific producers of pictures of any country in the world they produce somewhere around 500 pictures feature pictures a year among the Japanese pictures there is the Samurai pictures the gangster pictures and the present day drama thank you Mr Paul mizukami these are some of the top stars in Japan's Hollywood and as we continue looking at their pictures we're bound to notice that the emphasis is on youth the great stars of yesteryears the stars who made many of Japan's finest films are considered too old and here again is a striking similarity between Hollywood USA and Hollywood Japan a new generation is in command and these are the young people who will carry the box office burdens of the Japanese Hollywood and these lovely young ladies would do justice to any Motion Picture screen Studio to peer in two films and this was a luncheon where the American agent who had negotiated the contract he was perfectly willing to be photographed but our photographers couldn't care less and concentrated on Miss okayama photographers are like that foreign [Music] [Music] celebrates a new contract by buying a mink or a convertible in Japan it's jewelry costume jewelry all the way up to the real thing as the star becomes more and more successful [Music] foreign [Music] I like this [Music] her name again is Keiko okayama she speaks fairly fluent English having appeared in nightclubs in Las Vegas Los Angeles and Honolulu and the chances are that you'll be seeing this gracious young lady soon on the motion picture screen [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] a Japanese film unit on location is no different than any other company shooting away from the home studio this is a unit from the toei studio we saw earlier this particular Locale is in the vicinity of Kyoto and Osaka the particular film is a classical drama the story of a princess of the royal family fleeing the Invaders In the Kamakura period of Japanese history she is exhausted and falls to the ground her grandfather pleads with her to continue which she will do but only after some makeup retouching now though the actors spoke the lines the lines were not recorded only the cameras were rolling if they tried to record the sound as well they'd risk spoiling too many scenes because of Auto and plane noises Farmers working in the fields Etc so in this case the dialogue is recorded later separately the process is known as either looping or while tracking [Music] the actress recording the lines has asked shall I speak softly or quite loud and he replies softly as if out of breath from running I should take them making a kid and I think another day the Japanese went wild over Hollywood type musicals and extravaganzas years ago and they make excellent musicals one of the top stars is inue nobuo whom we met briefly in our story of Tokyo after dark a few months ago his counterpart in America in stature and popularity would probably be the great Nat King Cole his style is distinctive romantic and his salary is astronomical [Music] s [Music] [Music] soon [Music] to conclude our story on the Japanese Hollywood we called on Mr Donald Ritchie acknowledged even by the Japanese as the foremost critic of the Japanese Cinema he is authored numerous books on the subject and this is his most recent work Mr Richie what do you consider to be the most important and significant aspect of Japanese films let's see you know I think probably the most important thing of all about the Japanese film and certainly the thing that keeps my interest in it and that interests anybody who sees a good Japanese film is a kind of honesty an honesty of purpose and an honesty of delineation and an honesty of craftsmanship the attitude of the people who make it toward the film that is very very rare because Japanese films show Japan the way that American films never showed America and that German films never showed Germany or that Russian films don't show Russia of course one of the reasons for this is is uh is obvious Japan's a rather poor country they can't afford you know big Productions usually when they want to make an outdoor scene they actually have to go Outdoors if the scene's supposed to be on ginsa which is the main street here there's no answer but to take the whole through the geenson actually film it this makes for a kind of visual honesty which is quite rare but there's another kind of honesty too and you find this honesty in the or in the films of uh of ozu the films of naruse the films which too bad but so many of the Japanese producers feel are too Japanese for westerners to understand and this is an honesty about life itself I mean the Japanese are honest about life when they insist that life is not one great big happy romp that life to be sure is what you make it but that life in itself doesn't ensure you anything this brings in the obligatory the unhappy ending of the Japanese films which after all makes just as much sense as anybody else's happy ending does thank you very much Mr Donald Ritchie thank you [Music] [Applause]