Jidaigeki
From Karate, Kungfu, Wrestling, Mixed Fighting Information Source
The history of Japanese films (eiga) span around 100 years, and becuase of its rich tradition of martial arts history it is inevitable that many of its films revolve around this theme. The Jidaigeki, sometimes referred to as chambara movies, is film genre that depicts lives of craftsmen, martial artists and samurai that features heavy sword fights and empty-hand fighting scenes. Another type of martial art eiga is the Yakuza Eiga that is said as the Japanese version of Ameriacn gangster films. Although it contained heavy action sequences that contains martial arts, many of the film's theme revolve around revenge and other personal vendetta.
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History
Origins
The Jidaigeki has roots in Japan's kabuki and nô theater arts and their modern offspring the shimpa and shingeki. Stage fighting was less elaborate than the Chinese equivalent, but drew from Japan's own distinguished martial traditions. Motion pictures played in Japan as early as 1897, but it wasn't until 1923 that the term jidaigeki came into being. It was used that year in advertising for a silent film entitled Woodcut Artist, produced by the recognized "father of Japanese film," Shozo Makino. It was Shozo who moved away from heavy melodrama in silent-era period films and transformed them into more simpler swordplay films. His version of The Loyal Forty-Seven Ronin (1927) was a prime example that sped up the pace and offered more action. Nearing the end of the silent era in the late '20's, Makino's eldest son Masahiro went on to help redefine the genre along with Daisuki Ito. Films like The Street of the Masterless Samurai (1928) and Man-Slashing, Horse-Piercing Sword (1930) shied away from simple heroics to embrace social realism and increasingly bloody violence. Ironically, as Japan's militaristic leaders in the emerging Showa era lauded old-world samurai virtue, these filmmakers were presenting nihilistic tales of lowly ronin fighting against a corrupt and decadent upper class.
Post War Period
The government was particularly interested in anything that glorified the greatness or spirit of all things Japanese. Hiroshi Inagaki released a number of popular period films including 1940's Musashi Miyamoto, about Japan's most famous swordsman. Inagaki later remade this film into the Samurai Trilogy (1954-56) starring Toshiro Mifune which was well-received abroad. Screenwriter and assistant director Akira Kurosawa came into his own with period films, initially with his tale of judo's creator Sanshiro Sugata (1943). He went on to become Japan's most celebrated director internationally with the release of outstanding films in many genres. But his most popular films remain his jidai geki like The Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), and Ran (1985).
A new breed of swordplay began to appear in the '60s that leaned towards straight action and near-superhuman feats of skill. This was no doubt influenced by the old swashbucklers, but even more so by the rising popularity of manga (comic book), television superhero shows, and even the Shaw Brothers kung fu and wuxia films in Hong Kong. At the fore was the hugely successful and iconoclastic Zatoichi film series that consisted of twenty-five feature-length episodes that ran from 1962 to 1973. The great Shintaro Katsu starred as a blind swordsman and traveling masseur who fought injustice with his heightened senses and lightening-fast sword fighting skills.
By the 1970's Sword masters and ninjitsu experts were regularly called upon to assist in the production of action filmmaking, but there was no network and few organizations that focused on passing on the art of screen fighting, which was quite different from real-world martial arts.
Examples of Japanese Martial Art Films
- Zatoichi
- Ran (1985)
- Azumi
- The Seven Samurai (1954)
- The Yakuza
- Black Rain
