1st Edition
The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema A Handbook
Introduction: The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema: Soundscapes of the 1930s
Sean O’Reilly
Part 1: Talkies vs. Tradition: Japanese Movie Studios’ 1930s Experimentation
1. P.C.L. and the 1930s “Talkie” Films of Naruse Mikio
Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano
2. A Flexible Shochiku Realism: Shimazu Yasujirō and the Introduction of Sound
Earl Jackson
3. Reevaluating Nikkatsu Talkies: Dubbing During the Transition to Sound Cinema in Japan
Kenichirō Hase
Part 2: Sounding Them Out: New Genres in 1930s Japan
4. Changing Lyrics, Changing Times: Kaeuta (Parody Song) Culture in Japanese Cinema of the 1930s
Richard M. Davis
5. “Made in Japan”: The Birth of Tokusatsu
Laura Lee
6. Sounding out Synchrony: Early Experiments with Manga Eiga and Sound
Joelle Nazzicone
Part 3: Finding Their Voice: The Woes and Wows of Great Directors in 1930s Japan
7. Japan’s “Best One” of 1939: Why Uchida Tomu’s Earth Won the Top Critics’ Prize in an Extraordinary Year
David Baldwin
8. Restricting the Soundscape: Aural Minimalism in Tasaka Tomotaka’s War Films
Susanne Schermann
9. Image-Grammar: Shimazu Yasujirō and Film Language
Earl Jackson
Part 4: Speaking Up: Actors’ Struggles with the Silent-to-Sound Transition in 1930s Japan
10. Magnetic Nonchalance: Actor Saburi Shin’s Performances and Performativity in 1930s Shochiku Films
Yutaka Kubo
11. The Narutaki-Zenshin Collaboration: Creative Vanguards and Networks Advancing Period Film Conventions
Iris Haukamp
12. Rhythms in Migration: Whispering Sidewalks and Japan’s Jazz Age Cinema
Alexander Murphy
Interlude. Acting out the Soundscape: Enoken Plays Kondō Isami
Sean O’Reilly
Part 5: Movie Musicality: Soundscapes of the 1930s
13. From Silent to Talkie Soundscapes: Transforming Sounds and New Subjectivity
Eun Jeong Choi
14. The Relationship between Ozu Yasujirō’s Signature Style and the Soundscape in The Only Son
Yui Hayakawa
15. Dreamworlds: The Cinema and the Department Store
Irena Hayter
Appendix: The Advent of Sound: Timeline
Biography
Sean O’Reilly is Professor of Global Connectivity and Coordinator of the Japan Studies program at Akita International University. A graduate of Harvard University’s History and East Asian Languages doctoral program, he completed a secondary field in Film and Visual Studies. His research, which began with a Fulbright Scholarship to Japan, concerns the ways Japanese history has been reinvented in film and popular culture. Publications include Re-viewing the Past: The Uses of History in the Cinema of Imperial Japan (Bloomsbury, 2018) and “The Resurgent Right: The Secret of Japan’s Twenty-first Century Cinematic Success” (Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, 2023).
