Benshi in “Yoseba” or Following Other Shadows
Wojciech Świdziński
woyciesz@gmail.comThe Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6840-4069
Abstract
Dawid Głownia’s book Początki kina w Japonii na tle przemian społeczno-politycznych kraju [The Beginnings of Cinema in Japan in the Context of the Country’s Socio-Political Transformations] (2020) offers a detailed and comprehensive presentation of the birth of Japanese cinematography, from the importation of the film apparatus in 1897 and the establishment of the first major film companies such as Nikkatsu to the establishment of film censorship as a result of the “Zigomar scandal” of 1912. The author also presents manifold social, political and cultural contexts of the emergence of cinema in Japan, such as the world of street performances (misemono), which initially included the cinema, or the Russo-Japanese War, which stimulated the birth of the film industry. The origin of benshi, whose narration accompanied silent film screenings, is also discussed in detail. In the review, the processes described by Dawid Głownia are juxtaposed with the birth of cinema on Polish lands at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
Keywords:
origins of cinema, film industry, silent cinema, Meiji, benshi, misemono, Japanese cinemaReferences
Głownia, D. (2020). Początki kina w Japonii na tle przemian społeczno-politycznych kraju. Wrocław: Atut.
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Authors
Wojciech Świdzińskiwoyciesz@gmail.com
The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6840-4069
PhD in Humanities; theatre and film scholar. Lecturer at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, member of the Polish Society for Film and Media Studies. He published the book Co było grane? Film zagraniczny w Polsce w latach 1918-1929 na przykładzie Warszawy [What Was on Screens? Foreign Movies in Poland 1918-1929 A Case Study of Warsaw] (2015). He is also the author of an academic study of Andrzej Włast’s collection of movie columns. He published scientific and popular science articles in Kwartalnik Filmowy, Ekrany, Pleograf and Stolica.
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