The daughter of the samurai
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The daughter of the samurai / 新 し き 土 |
| Country of production | Germany , Japan |
| original language | German , Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1937 |
| length | 120, 127 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Arnold Fanck |
| script | Arnold Fanck |
| production |
Nagasama Kawakita Yoshi Osawa for Arnold Fanck-Film, Berlin; JO Studio, Tokyo and Towa-Shoji-Film, Tokyo |
| music | Kosaku Yamada |
| camera |
Richard Angst Walter Riml Isamu Ueda |
| cut | Arnold Fanck Alice Ludwig-Rasch |
| occupation | |
| |
The Samurai's Daughter is a German-Japanese film from 1937 with Sessue Hayakawa in one of the leading roles. Directed by Arnold Fanck .
action
The young Japanese Teruo Yamato studied in Germany for eight years and is now returning home. This time abroad left its mark on him, and he would no longer want to miss many of the values he had come to know in the West. As the first visible sign of his emancipation, he is no longer willing to bow to the wishes of the family and, as planned, to marry Mitsuko, the daughter of his adoptive father, the respected and wealthy samurai Iwao Yamato. Rather, love should show him the way into marriage. On the journey home to Japan, Teruo meets the striking blonde German Gerda. Both get along straight away, and the German advises the Japanese not to rebel against the old traditions, especially since he owes the debt of his adoptive father, who financed his studies in Germany.
Teruo is picked up from the train station in Tokyo by his future bride and her father Iwao, the samurai. While Mitsuko, who has fevered her entire life for this day of the arranged marriage, is excited, Teruo, full of doubts whether there could be a blessing in a marriage with this woman who has become a stranger to him, behaves harshly and dismissively. Rather, Teruo tries to persuade the family council to reverse the previous adoption by the venerable samurai in order to avoid this unwanted marriage. Although deeply disappointed by Teruos' seemingly dishonorable behavior, Mitsuko, trapped in her convention-laden upbringing, does not allow herself to express displeasure and maintains, quietly suffering, demeanor.
In the course of the weeks, Teruo also began to realize that the old laws and conventions that hold Japanese society together at heart are definitely justified. After visiting his birth parents - his father works as an impoverished rice farmer in the field - Teruo has made a decision. But Mitsuko doesn't want her future husband to marry her just out of a sense of duty. She takes her noble wedding kimono and climbs the nearby crater of the volcano, which has been rumbling restlessly for some time, in order to plunge herself from the crater rim into the seething depths with suicidal intent. Teruo rushes after her to prevent a terrible accident at the last minute. With the abyss in mind, the two young people find each other and now know that they want to face their life as a married couple together. Mitsuko's pregnancy ultimately gives the connection its final legitimacy.
Production notes and backgrounds
At the invitation of the Japanese Ministry of Culture , director Fanck set out for Japan in spring 1936 with a small crew consisting of his cameramen Richard Angst , Walter Riml and their two assistants, Hannes Staudinger, as well as the actress Ruth Eweler and the production manager Karl Buchholz to work there To turn the samurai's daughter . Everyone else involved in the shooting was Japanese. The world premiere was on February 3, 1937 in Tokyo, the German premiere on March 23, 1937 in the Berlin Capitol am Zoo. In the same year the film was shown in Denmark and Finland. In Japan, The Daughter of the Samurai , who was called Atarashiki Tsuchi ( 新 し き 土 , literally: "New Earth"), was published again in 2012.
The Samurai's Daughter was the first German-Japanese joint production in film history. In several scenes he reflects the political situation in 1936. Japan and Germany had just the primarily against the Soviet Union directed Anti-Comintern Pact signed, and in a scene is this impending alliance in the Second World War should ripen to brotherhood in arms, more than clear. The Japanese Sessue Hayakawa declaimed the following words to the German Ruth Eweler in view of the gloomy volcanic rolling in the background: “ A dangerous storm is blowing over the earth. For you it comes from the east, for us it blows from the west . "
The cooperation between the two Axis powers during the war resulted in the film being released again in German cinemas in 1942/43 under the title Die Liebe der Mitsu . At this time in the opening credits expressis verbis pointed out the German-Japanese military alliance.
Of the Japanese actors, only Sessue Hayakawa was internationally known, since he made a name for himself in Hollywood during the silent movie era. Like his central Japanese colleagues, Hayakawa speaks his text in German.
Since Japanese is spoken in several passages, The Daughter of the Samurai also has German subtitles. A Japanese version of the film was made by Mansaku Itami .
In the German Reich, the film was given the title “State-politically and artistically valuable”. The Allied military authorities immediately banned The Daughter of the Samurai in 1945 in view of the German-Japanese war alliance .
Arnold Fanck used his stay in Japan to make a number of short documentaries. In 1936 he directed the productions Kaiserbauten in Farost, Winterreise through Southern Manchuria, Rice and Wood in the Land of Mikado, Spring in Japan, Japan's Sacred Volcano, In a Chinese City and Pictures of Japan's Coasts . All of these films, only 11 to 14 minutes long, were shown in the German Reich between 1938 and 1944. Fanck's two-year-old son Hans-Joachim, who also traveled with him, was the focus of the 28-minute short film Hänschen klein, which was also shot there .
Fanck's head cameraman Richard Angst stayed in Japan for a while after the shooting and also photographed a feature-length government documentary called “The Song of Comrades” on behalf of the Tokyo Navy Ministry : a praise for the Japanese riverboat flotilla on the Chinese Huangpu . This film, which premiered in Japan in January 1939, was shown in a special screening in Berlin in March 1939.
reception
“Although just a simple feature film, 'The Samurai's Daughter' was a curious political document that truthfully portrayed the climate of political (and racial) relations between the Third Reich and Japan. The film showed the love of a young Japanese, who graduated from a German university (this was the opportunity to show the outstanding role of German higher education), for a German girl with whom he wanted to connect his life, although he was his bride in Japan, the samurai's daughter. In the end, however, the love of the proud Japanese woman prevailed, which at the same time gave the film's producers the opportunity to skillfully avoid the 'racial conflict'. The young Japanese finally went to Manchuria to serve his fatherland there. "