Rice Harvesting in Japan
No credits. UK (?) 1910
Print: BFI
German intertitles

“Farmers demonstrate how to use a variety of traditional farm tools, such as tomi (a device to winnow the grains with an internal fan), mi (a winnowing basket) and senbanuki (a forked device to comb the rice grains from the straws). Everyone from children to the elderly seems to be engaged in the farm work, but the class differences are indicated by the clothing: the employer is dressed in fashionable kimono and sports a fedora and a moustache, while the other farmers wear plain work clothes. The title is given in French and the intertitles are in German; different versions would have been distributed across Europe.”
Kosuke Fujiki (Film Studies, King’s College London)
YouTube

Rice Festival in Kyoto
No credits. Fr (?) 1911
Print: BFI
German intertitles

“The film begins with tayu dochu (courtesans’ procession), in which high-ranking courtesans of the Shimabara district in Kyoto parade through the street in a slow, stylised manner, accompanied by parasol-holders and child attendants. This worldly public spectacle is followed by the festive parade of Shintoism, presumably held by either the Matsuno’o Shrine or the Fushimi Inari Shrine. The open-air theatrical performance, with its full house of standing audience, is possibly part of the festival.” 
Kosuke Fujiki (Film Studies, King’s College London)

BFI silent film curator Bryony Dixon adds: “This was filmed by Pathé Frères in 1911. There are only two surviving intertitles: ‘Parade of the beauties’ and ‘Parade in honour of the ancient warriors’. The Pathé synopsis mentions that one of the portable shrines is dedicated to the Ō Inari – the kami (or spirit) associated with the fox and grain harvest – who rides a white fox.” (BFI/YouTube)

Japanese Festival
No credits. UK (?) 1909
Print: BFI
German intertitles

“A vibrant festival with parades of fishermen and geisha celebrates the 50th anniversary of the opening of Yokohama Port. While being watched by a huge crowd, various people cheerfully parade through the streets of Yokohama. A festive atmosphere is prevalent. In a parade that imitates a traditional state procession, the marchers are seen wearing comical costume wigs to represent the shaven head of samurai with its chonmage topknot. The specific locations in Yokohama have been identified as Fukutomi-cho and Sumiyoshi-cho, within walking distance of each other. The Port of Yokohama holds a significant position in Japanese history. Over 200 years of Japan’s isolation from foreign countries was broken when US Commodore Matthew C Perry arrived with his warships at Uraga, south of Yokohama, in 1853. In 1859, the Port of Yokohama was opened in response to foreign pressure to open the country to international trade. The opening of the port heralds for Japan both the end of its feudal era and the beginning of its modernity.”
Kosuke Fujiki (Film Studies, King’s College London)

>>> Japan – a Travelogue

 

Picturesque Japan
No credits. Production unknown. UK (?) 1907
Print: BFI
German title and intertitles

“This travelogue visits diverse locations, including Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Yokohama and Tokyo. The first half shows panoramic views of rivers, such as the Dotonbori Canal in Osaka, the Sumida River in Tokyo and the Shijo Bridge spanning the Kamo River in Kyoto. The flowing water of those rivers, shot either from a boat or over a bridge, adds to the vibrancy of urban life. The film’s second half focuses on street life, from the bonsai (miniature trees) market to the noodle vendor. The film also bears witness to the zeitgeist of Meiji Japan. In a scene set in Yokohama, we see the annual parade celebrating Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War. The victory in Manchuria gave the Japanese public a sense of pride and confidence, as can be seen on the triumphant faces of flag-wavers.”
Kosuke Fujiki (Film Studies, King’s College London)
YouTube

Au Japon le rapide de la rivière Ozu
No credits. Production unknown. Fr (?) 1906
Print: BFI

“The Hozu River in Kyoto is known for its rapid currents, winding course and giant boulders that protrude from the water. Taken with a camera mounted on the stern of a boat, the opening shot of this film enables the audience to experience a dizzying wild ride, while in the rest of the film the camera stands on the riverbanks to capture the boats being violently tossed by the waters. The rush of water, a popular subject in the earliest years of film, must have thrilled contemporary viewers.”
Kosuke Fujiki (Film Studies, King’s College London)
YouTube

Kosuke Fujiki completed an MA in Film Studies at the University of Kent, after having graduated from Okinawa International University with a BA and an MA in British and American Language and Culture. His research interests include East Asian cinema, cinema and (post-)nationalism, memory, history and nostalgia in film, the questions of cultural representation, and cinema and translation. At King’s, he is currently awarded King’s Overseas Research Studentship. In the past, he has worked as an English-Japanese translator, specialising in film and video subtitles.
King’s College London

The Ranchman’s Vengeance
R: Allan Dwan. D: J. Warren Kerrigan, Gilbert P. Hamilton, Dot Farley, George Periolat. P: American Film Manufacturing Company (as Flying A). USA 1911
German intertitles

“The Ranchman’s Vengeance (May 1911) offers a striking contrast to the films Dwan would soon shoot for the company. Although cinematically conventional, the film tells us an unconventional story in that its ranchman hero is a Mexican American, Lorenz Pedro, and his revenge is directed at a white man, Tom Flint (…). Mexicans or Mexican Americans were the subject of a good number of earlier westerns, but they usually played villains – as in Broncho Billys Mexican Wife (November 1912) – victims or, characters who either gratefully were rescued by whites or sacrificed themselves for whites. The Ranchman’s Vengeance is revealing anomaly in its recasting of a figure typically seen as ‘racially inferior’ and thus marginalized in the ‘imagined community’ of the West. (…) On the one hand, the ending is more characteristic of European than American films (…) and this may have partly accounted for its popularity abroad. On the other hand, and more important, the lack of reviews (except for ‘Billboard’s, which identifies only the ‘ranchman’s servant’ as Mexican) means either that the film’s circulation was limited to marginal areas of the U.S. social order – specifically in Southwest venues catering to Mexican Americans – or that the names in its intertitles had to be expunged from any ads elsewhere.”
Charlie Keil, Shelley Stamp: American Cinema’s Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices. University of California Press 2004, p. 145

>>> Allan Dwan, 1912

>>> Allan Dwan, 1913

>>> Allan Dwan, 1915

The Medium Exposed? Or, A Modern Spiritualistic Seance
R: J.H. Martin. P: Paul’s Animatograph Works.  UK 1906

“This ingenious six-minute saga sees a gathering of affluent suburban Spiritualists almost duped by a con artist whose elaborate ‘séance’ goes awry. While his fright-wigged assistant escapes, the phoney medium is manhandled into a trunk, thrown down a hill and paraded along the local high street as a warning to others: woe betide those who feign the power to contact departed loved ones. The RW Paul company was a pioneer of the early ‘trick film’; the neat tricks seen here include the lowering of the light and the disembodied ghost.”
BFI Player

“Otherwise known as ‘Is Spiritualism a Fraud?’, the 1906 short film is a fantastic example of how spirit contact, or rather, perceived spirit contact, has been a source of entertainment and debate since its inception nearly 200 years ago. (…) The elaborate séance tricks of the medium were commonplace in the 19^thcentury whereby the realm of the dark séance curated prime opportunities for trickery and misdirection; all thanks to a few strings, a stooge and a pot of glow-in-the-dark paint. By the turn of the century, such overblown ‘performance’ elements of manifestation mediumship and dark seances were already rather old hat, with reports of clear fraudulent practise commonplace in the spiritualist press. This general familiarity with the presence of spiritualism and spiritualist groups in society was prime territory for the film’s director who had professionally worked as a stage magician. Subsequently, he would have known how many mediumistic tricks were conducted and may have indeed felt a little rivalry with the profession that attributed mysticism to their own inventions. Short films such as these were forerunners to the world of visual effects and were known as ‘trick’ films. Directed by trick-film specialist Walter R. Booth (although also credited to J. H. Martin), it was one of the last films made in collaboration with R.W. Paul. Unlike their other films, of which there are many, the mechanisms by which their tricks operated are directly shown to the audience – in this instance, for comedic, not just dramatic effect.”
Kate Cherrell
Burials & Beyond