Also Directed by Kajirō Yamamoto
May Kawaguchi is a famous Japanese fashion designer. Returning to Tokyo from her home in New York, she travels incognito with a tour group, in hopes of having a quiet vacation without being noticed. But she is spotted and the press has a field-day with the returning celebrity. Her hopes of rest shattered, she agrees to put on a large-scale fashion show.
Two sisters, one a dancer and the other a script supervisor at a big movie studio, become embroiled in union activities when a strike is called in sympathy with striking railroad workers, one of whom boards with the sisters and their parents. The girls' father argues with them about their strike, but finds his views changing when he himself loses his job.
1935 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
A legendary pre-war comedy operetta starring Enomoto Kenichi, Hideko Takamine and Li Xianglan. The Sanzo Ikkou continues its westward journey, on a mission to prevent a demonic resurrection. As Genjo Sanzo, Cho Hakkai, Sha Gojyo, and Son Goku (Kenichi Enomoto) fight their way to their goal, their path is fraught with internal strife.
Studio P.C.L. was specifically founded to make sound films, and this early musical balances the aesthetics of the sound film with those of the stage revue. The king of Tokyo’s revue stage, comedian Ken’ichi Enomoto (Enoken) had made his name in the capital’s theatrical district of Asakusa. The film employed not only the star, but his entire theatrical troupe, and the narrative was structured around scenes which Enoken had played successfully on stage. Billed as offering 'Japan’s number one comedy actor and Japan’s number one musical comedy,' the film self-consciously borrowed from Hollywood musical comedy; indeed, the original posters carried spoof endorsements by Eddie Cantor and the Marx Brothers! Director Kajiro Yamamoto, making his P.C.L. debut, would become a stalwart of the company and its successor, Toho. He was to have a profound influence on Japanese film history as mentor to Akira Kurosawa, who assisted him on a number of films including Horse (Uma, 1941).
1930s Japanese comedy.
Enoken plays both Kondo Isami and his deadly enemy Sakamoto Ryoma in this comedic, song-filled vision of the Meiji Restoration.
Enoken plays a frog-oil-hawking conman whose claims to martial prowess land him in hot water with the local samurai gentry - but not before he falls in love with exactly the wrong girl. Another musical comedy period film quick on the heels of the earlier Kondo Isami.
What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy in 1942.
