Prewar Proletarian Film Collection: Books
Iwasaki Akira, Eiga to Shihonshugi (Film and capitalism)
(Tokyo: Sekaisha, 1931)
The author of this book was one of the founding members of Prokino (and the second head of the organization). This is his second book. It lays out a critique of the bourgeois cinemas of Germany and the United States. Another theme has to do with the aesthetics of the talkie. Iwasaki summarizes many of the theories he developed in his previous three years of film activism. This book also played an important role in introducing the montage theories of Pudovkin and Eisenstein to Japan. One its most important features is the appendix, which reprints a report about the activities of Prokino's central committee for their third general meeting. It provides an excellent sense for what Prokino was up to at the beginning of the 1930s. Eric Cazdyn provides an excellent and extended analysis of the book in his
Iwasaki Akira and Murayama Tomoyoshi, eds., Puroretaria Eiga no Chishiki (Proletarian film knowledge)
(Tokyo: Naigaisha, 1932)
This edited volume contains essays by some of the key members of Prokino, including Murayama, Iwasaki, Kamimura Shukichi, Sasa Genju, Kitagawa Tetsuo, and Takida Izuru. An introduction to proletarian cinema, the book was designed to attract new members to the movement. The articles were based on notes the authors' used for presentations at Prokino meetings. Kamimura's is particularly interesting as a history of Prokino from their own perspective. He uses the article as an opportunity to criticize the Proletarian Film Federation and position Prokino as the only true proletarian film movement.
Matsuzaki Keiji, ed., Puroretaria Eiga undo no Tenbo (Prospects of the proletarian film movement)
(Tokyo: Daihokaku, 1930)
Prokino formed in 1929 and founded Shinko Eiga as its monthly magazine. This book is a collection of the journal articles that Prokino members felt were significant. It also contains articles from Federation members like Kishi Matsuo, and others by sympathizers from outside the movement such as star Yamanouchi Hikaru, novelist Kobayashi Takiji, playwrights Fujimori Seikichi and Akita Ujaku, theorist Fujiwara Korehito, and others.
Murayama Tomoyoshi, Puroretaria Eiga Nyumon (An introduction to proletarian film)
(Tokyo: Zen'ei Shobo, 1928)
Murayama Tomoyoshi is an important playwright and theater director who became interested in German expressionism, dada, futurism and other European movements of the avant-garde. He began introducing these theories and aesthetic modes into Japanese theater in the 1920s. Murayama was a central figure in the proletarian theater movement, and participated in Prokino as well. These chapters were pulled together from previous publications in major magazines like Eiga Jidai and Eiga Hihyo. The bulk of the book consists of film reviews, along with some general criticism and translations.
Puroretaria Eiga no Tame ni (For a proletarian cinema)
(Kyoto: Kyoto Kyoseikaku, 1931)
This is the first book that Prokino published on its own. It collects the texts of the presentations given at a Prokino conference. Many of the articles reflect the new direction the movement took after the Third General Meeting (see Iwasaki's Eiga to Shihonshugi above), which was essentially the turn from criticism and critical studies to the production and distribution of their own films. This amounted to a self-critique of left wing film criticism bound to the pages of intellectual journals or trapped in classrooms and meeting halls, paired with a movement to the streets and the spaces of the strikes themselves. This turn toward using film production for grassroots organization and agitation at labor actions met with increasingly severe police pressure in the following three years.
Puroretaria Eiga Undo Riron (Theory of the proletarian film movement)
(Tokyo: Tenjinsha, 1930)
Part of an important series of books entitled Shingeijutsuron Shisutemu (New system of art theory, which is available in a paper reprint). This was spearheaded by Inagaki Takaho, who returned from Germany in the early 1930s excited by the modernist movements on the continent. This fascinating series strove to imagine the possibilities of modernism for a variety of artistic fields, including architecture, photography, painting, music, and literature. Contributions on cinema included books on the talkies, the avant-garde, and this volume on proletarian cinema. It features a selection of articles from Shinko Eiga that Prokino editors felt were the most important writing produced before the turn in orientation from criticism to production.