"Realism" in late 1930s Japanese films and Fukai Shiro's film music : around anti-musical accompaniment arguments

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Other Title
  • 一九三〇年代後半の日本映画における「リアリズム」と深井史郎の映画音楽 : 伴奏音楽無用論をめぐって
  • イチキュウサン〇ネンダイ コウハン ノ ニホン エイガ ニ オケル 「 リアリズム 」 ト フカイシロウ ノ エイガ オンガク : バンソウ オンガク ムヨウロン オ メグッテ

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Abstract

In Japanese film history, the late 1930s was known as a period when interest in filmic "realism" rose. This study examines how this interest in filmic realism influenced musical accompaniment in narrative films in the late 1930s. It mainly focuses on two complementary aspects of filmic realism: one based on naturalist/ socialist realism in literature and the other based on a new conception of filmic representation that emphasized audiovisual realism. This study investigates the contrasting influences of these two aspects. One influence was the decrease in the use of non-diegetic music, a practice reported in contemporary texts that can be confirmed by existing realist films. The first half of the paper analyzes contemporary discourse on filmic realism and anti-musical accompaniment arguments and reveals that musical accompaniment was considered unsuitable for both the above-mentioned aspects of realism. This influence, however, was not restricted to the decrease in use of non-diegetic music. In fact musical accompaniment was not completely abandoned, and some contemporary Japanese film composers sought an effective way of using it in realist films. The latter half of this paper shows the efforts of Fukai Shiro, one such leading Japanese composer, in this regard.

Journal

  • Aesthetics

    Aesthetics 66 (1), 173-184, 2015

    The Japanese Society for Aesthetics

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