by Jared Dec
As someone who has been actively reading Wonders in the Dark for the better part of a decade (although admittedly as a lurker), I can say that it is a privilege to actually be finally writing for the blog. I was lucky enough to have known Allan for several years before his passing. We communicated regularly and through his generosity of sending DVD-R’s and his many reviews, my exposure to film was widened considerably during my formative years. I have recently turned 23 and am a STEM major so I am not as qualified as most to write on film. I have however seen more films than most people my age (a little over 2,100 at the time of writing), and I am quite passionate about film as a hobby.
My favorite content on Wonders was always The Fish Obscuro, as the idea of the vast unexplored world of film outside the established canon had a wide array of possibilities that made me spend many hours tracking down obscure films to find the next unknown masterpiece even though I had yet to see much of the established canon. Since Allan’s passing, sadly The Fish Obscuro has sort of passed with him, and so I would like to attempt to revive it with semi-regular updates. My collection of films is far smaller than Allan’s behemoth of a set, but I do have some rarities which are sufficiently obscure to qualify. So to begin with, I will be covering perhaps the most obscure film I own, Sweat (1929, Tomu Uchida).
Sweat – Tomu Uchida
(Japan 1929 50m)
p ??? d Tomu Uchida w Masashi Kobayashi ph Matao Matsuzawa eq Nobujiro Ikeda int Hisasi Nitomi
Koji Shima (?), Heitaro Doi (?), Moku Akaboshi (?), Hirotoshi Murata (?), Kunio Tamura (?), Etsuji Oki (?), Hisako Takihana (?)
Regulations again!
Tomu Uchida is a big unknown in the West, yet has a very healthy following among cineastes in Japan, having been called the 7th greatest Japanese director of all-time in a 2010 Kinema Junpo poll of Japanese film critics and historians. I have always been fascinated by his very unconventional career and have tried to seek out his films with a rare diligence that I spare for only directors who I feel are truly interesting and whose works are equally difficult to find. In fact it was because of Allan’s write-up of Uchida’s Earth (1939) that I mustered the courage to email him and see if he could send me a copy, an event which is the impetus of me writing for this very blog. How I came upon a copy of Sweat or Kigeki: Ase as it is known in Japanese, is a long one. As far as I know, the film has not been shown anywhere in the modern era and was never translated into English. It was up to me as a 17 year-old to hire a native speaker to translate the intertitles into English (not cheap for a high-schooler with no stable income). Sweat still lacks even five ratings on imdb, and in fact I have even seen several writings on Uchida that say of his silents only the feature Policeman (1933) and the short The Legend of Crab Temple (1925) are still existent, with all others lost. I can say Sweat not only still exists in its complete form (or at least there are no obvious bits missing for me to judge otherwise), but is actually surprisingly good.
To those new to Uchida, his career is really split into two distinct parts: pre-WWII and post-1955. Uchida had a 15-year hiatus from film making while a prisoner of war in Manchuria trying to return to Japan. His post-WWII period is by far his best-known and all of the DVD releases in the West come from this period (the Miyamoto Musashi saga in the US, Swords of Doom in Italy, and three other post-war films in France are his only DVD releases that I am aware of outside Japan). Highlights from this period include A Fugitive From the Past, A Bloody Spear at Mt. Fuji, and Killing in Yoshiwara (also known as Hero of the Red Light District in some writings including Allan’s book). Uchida’s pre-WWII efforts are the great unknown and for me personally those I have managed to see from this period greatly exceed his more commercial and conventional post-WWII works. To my knowledge, only Earth (1939), Policeman (1933), The Legend of Crab Temple (1925), and now Sweat (1929) exist with English subtitles (though my subs for Sweat have never been circulated or formatted into an .srt file). Unending Advance (1937) still exists but with no English subtitles. Despite their extreme obscurity, Uchida’s pre-war films were his most-acclaimed by contemporaries with all three of Uchida’s Best Japanese film of the year awards from Kinema Junpo came from this period [A Living Puppet (1929) supposedly lost but after finding Sweat, this may be disproven one day, Unending Advance (1937) and Earth (1939)]. To see any of Uchida’s pre-war films is like trying to watch a copy of Citizen Kane that has been defiled by the ages with some of the reels missing. Earth is partially lost with no known copy having the last reel, and even the copy Allan sent me lacked the first reel as well. When watching these films and remembering that they were more acclaimed than the likes of The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums by contemporary critics, one cannot help but long to see them in their true intended form.
Sweat in of itself is not in the best of shape film-quality-wise, with my copy feeling like it was taken from a third-generation copy on sub par film stock that has been left to decay. However, as I have said, at least it is complete to my knowledge which exceeds expectations after Earth. 20’s Japanese films are usually an era so obscure and rare that most with any awareness of films of said time and place are to film buffs what film buffs are to normal people. The film itself is a sort of an early prototype of Sullivan’s Travels by way of The Devil and Miss Jones. Heizaemon Kitayama VI is a single young millionaire, a blue-blood who has never worked a day in his life. The intertitle jokes, “Naturally he is a lucky man who lives in paradise”, though we can clearly see that Kitayama is deeply unsatisfied with his pampered lifestyle. Constantly surrounded by attendants who monitor his every move and order him not to do anything dangerous, risky, or strenuous, Kitayama feels trapped by his pampered surroundings. In a scene straight out of the works of Lubitsch, Kitayama makes a run for it with all of his attendants, servants, and employees chasing him. Through a mix of alcohol and exhaustion, Kitayama collapses by the side of the road. A vagrant comes by and swaps his millionaire’s suit for his rags and runs off. Kitayama awakens to find himself with no identification and no money and is forced to take a job on a local construction crew in order to survive. During his manual labor, he falls in love with a local working-class girl and learns some serious lessons about appreciating what one has.
The story is perhaps hackneyed by today’s standards and one really only has to be somewhat paying attention to see where it will lead, but the details are what truly elevate this unknown film to the level of hidden gem. For instance there is one shot where the swinging pendulum of a clock is juxtaposed over the walking legs of Kitayama which I swear feels straight out of Vertov’s work. The chase sequences are genuinely funny and pay homage to the likes of Keaton or Lloyd. The cinematography is far more intricate than most Japanese films of the era with crane shots and some beautiful tracking shots coming into play throughout the running time. As a whole, the film is far more worthy of remembrance than a large majority of Japanese silents (I will go on the record, saying this film is genuinely funnier than any of Ozu’s silent comedies except I was Born But…) and yet has quite unfairly fallen into the deepest obscurity imaginable with most forgetting the film even still exists. So do yourself a favor. If you get the chance to give Sweat a viewing, do so. You may never get the chance again and it is well worth 50 minutes of any film buff’s time.
****1/2
If anyone is interested in seeing this film or any others I cover in this series, or wants to talk film, send an email to ikiruugetsu@gmail.com
Great stuff! I imagine I’ll be following the entries in this revival with considerable interest.
Yes this is celebration time at Wonders in the Dark for sure, what with Jared taking up the baton of our dearly departed Allan, and resurrecting a series which for many was the heart and soul of the site by way of unique film scholarship. And Jared has done his mentor and predecessor proud with a rare find from a director Allan held in the highest regard. Wonderful lead on Uchida and delineation of the film’s significance, as well as an insightful analysis of its artistry. I do of course well know that the condition of Japanese films from this era are dodgy, though we should be grateful to have them at all. Your generosity in offering copies to anyone who desires the film is also in the spirit of Allan, who provided copies to many around the globe.
A wonderful idea to bring back the Fish Obscuro, and after reading this it is clear Jared is the one to do it.
Sounds a really interesting find, I’ll look forward to your future selections
Thanks for all the kind words! It came to my attention while writing this that Sweat has been posted on Dailymotion and can be seen here (unsubbed of course): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x39peop
If you want to try watching the film with printed subs, i.e. from a Word document. Email me at the address in the article and I can send you a copy of the English subs I had made (would post here but it is seven pages long). Thanks to all for reading!
Jared Dec, this is a moving tribute to Allan’s legacy. And what a fantastic find. Hope you continue the series!