Ran's warming-up/reminders:
1. CHINA NIGHT was produced by TOHO, one of the major Japanese film studios, NOT Man'ei/Manying. It is part of the 'goodwill'(shinzen 親善) films according to Baskett (p.80); and is considered a 'national policy film' (kokusaku eiga・国策映画), due to its propagandist elements [click here for an essay on Japanese Wartime cinema and particularly the National Policy films. It talks about China Night as well]. China Night is one of the Goodwill Trilogies produced by TOHO, pairing her together with Hasegawa (the male star). But it would be also great to think about the ambiguities.
Location shooting of CHINA NIGHT took place at Shanghai and Suzhou (in Southern China, not MANCHURIA). Li Jie mentions the sequence shot in war-torn Shanghai (Koran walks in rubbles, reminiscing her happy days with her parents). I remember I also mentioned how the film also documented the boisterous scenes near the Bund, during my Benshi interpretation. In my handouts, you could also find more about the Trilogy.
You can still download the NOTEs on this lecture HERE
here are the two other films in the Goodwill Trilogy:
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Oath on the Burning Sands (1940/location: Beijing) |
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| Song of the White Orchid, 1939 |
2. Ran showed the sequence of a Man'ei/Manying film Winter Jasmine (迎春花，1942) at the beginning of the lecture, which is discussed too in Li Jie's article. It is shot in Manchuria/Harbin.
The flow of the Workshop
1. Two-sentence summary of your Final Paper (for sure it is tentative); 5-8 min2. Introduce your project to your group members: What? How? Why we shall care? Recognize your keywords and film(s). 20 min
3. Final presentation: 1 min introduction on the project.
