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Report on Kyoto Film Festival

The restored print of “Tokkyu 300 Mile” was chosen and shown as the opening film of the 4th Kyoto Film Festival in September 2004. Here we report on the atmosphere of the day. The silent film whose preservation StickyFilms (former name of FPS) was involved in was going to be screened, so I was in Kyoto from 18th to 20th September, 2004. The film title is “Tokkyu 300 Mile”. Nikkatsu made it in 1928.The original print was stored at Planet in Osaka, and it was restored under the supervision of Prof. Yoneo Ota from Osaka Art University. This film was going to be screened at the opening gala of the 4th Kyoto Film Festival. On the 18th, early on Saturday evening, it was hot and humid in Kyoto even though it was Fall. I was at the station with other members of StickyFilms.Going up on the escalator from the central exit of Kyoto Station, there is the Muromachi Koji Square. In this open space from the fourth floor up to the 11th, there are 171 steps almost reaching to the sky, and these formed the seating for this event. It looked like the Odessa Steps in “BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925)”, however there were no armies or crying citizens today, of course. There were instead a cute little girl dancing to the live jazz in the opening gala program, and passionate film fans. Young and old, everyone was enjoying the evening, waiting expectantly until the screening started. It got totally dark around at 7pm. “Tokkyu 300 Mile” started at last… but oh no! There was projection trouble. It took a while to see the toptitle. G. A. Buchwald, the pianist from Germany, was worried, and kept looking back to the projector. The audience yelled, “Come on!”. That’s fair enough. We’d been looking forward to this film for such a long time. After five minutes silence,_ the top credit started to project on the screen. Our name StickyFilms appeared…! I almost screamed but somehow swallowed it. The real pleasure was still to come. _

Then the Film Started Quietly

Then the film started quietly. It had never been shown since the early Showa era, and was not even recorded in Kinema Jumpo’s Database. It survived all the humidity and dust. The film completely forgotten by history was finally coming to the light again. G. A. Buchwald played the piano and viola at the same time and expressed a variety of scenes, from the crazy running of a SL to the tears of the unlucky woman who was sold to a circus. Passage up tempo, slow legato, and viola’s pizzicato. A lot of different sounds gave life to the images. A SL, which have already vanished from Japan, is running straight at us with smoke. It slides into the station. Passengers come and go. it reminded me of the Lumiere brothers’ “L’Arrivee d’un train __la Ciotat (1895)”. At the time, film was just invented, the audience were too shock and stunned to run away, but nowadays nobody tries to escape. The screen was set up outside, and this situation is just like the early days of moving image, but now we’re in the 21st century. This is the most primitive experience of cinema. In the process of film preservation, we arrived at the earliest days of cinema! _

Original Power of Films

I’d watched “Tokkyu 300 Mile” on video a few times by then. To be honest, I have to confess that, except for the first mad runaway train scenes, this film didn’t appeal to me very much. The suspense of the ringmaster seeking for the heroine_ is not enough, Koji Shima was not so cool, and Hisako Takihara, the heroine was not that gorgeous. But these are all my misunderstanding. It was because I watched it on such a small TV at home. Koji Shima, the hero train operator. Later on he directed 95 films for Nikkatsu-Tamagawa and Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong. Was he really such a good man? The heroine, Hisako Takihara. She is famous as the wife of Tomotaka Tasaka, who directed “A Pay by the Wayside” or “Mud and Soldiers”. Was this Nikkatsu actress really such a lovely__fragile woman? The landlord husband and wife at Koji Shima’s digs, and their child, were they all such energetic characters? For the first time I realised that the original power of film only comes out on the big screen and with the light from the projectors. These two are the key. Even if they are the same image, why is it so much deeper and the tempo so much more dynamic on the screen? It was called magic at the start, and it still is. There must be something nobody can explain with technology or logic, which many people and books talk about, but this was the first actual experience for me. We welcome the progress of digital technology, however it’s just a surface matter. Under the surface, there’s a monster that has been living there since 1928. What’s good about film? Cool actors, stunning actresses, heart-breaking love and romance, naughty eroticism, thrills that__make our heart beat fast, touching stories_ making us cry unconsciously….. there’re so many answers we can think of. When you are looking up at the screen you have one of these feelings, but sometimes I want you to look back. The roots of the light coming through with dust flickering in it, the ribbon of the celluloid film loaded in the camera, and the various people’s passion recorded on that ribbon. Laughter, tears, anger, loneliness, joy. The existence of these films which create colourful feelings. This 82 minute long train film got a big round of applause at the end. _ “Tokkyu 300 Mile” was born twice. The first birth was at its production in 1928. The second birth was in 2004, when it was picked up from the bottom of a river of oblivion. I assume this film must have had a lucky destiny. My bottom hurt because I was sitting on the concrete steps for such a long time, but it didn’t bother me. It was a fun film. A good film. That’s enough for a movie. After the screening, the outside screen and equipment were rapidly being put away one by one. The opening gala was over. In between the buildings around the station, I saw Kyoto tower was lit up warmly like a lamp.

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