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Tôjin okichi
(1930)

This late Japanese silent feature film was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The film is presumed lost, with the exception of a four-minute self-contained fragment of a female dancer performing (presumably) to the gramophone record shown in the fragment.

Digital Meme
2007 DVD edition

Orizuru Osen (1935), black & white, 87 minutes, not rated, with Tôjin okichi (1930) [fragment], black & white, 4 minutes, not rated.

Digital Meme, DMSF1007,
UPC 4-571233-840078, ISBN 978-4-903759-07-4.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.8 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; Japanese language intertitles, no subtitles; no chapter stops (within the film); four-page insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; ¥5,229.
Release date: 24 October 2007.
Country of origin: Japan

Ratings (1-10): video: 5 / audio: 5 / additional content: 7 / overall: 5.

This DVD edition has been mastered from a 9.5mm reduction print that is scuffed, scratched. However, the image is reasonably detailed.

The film is accompanied by a performance of the song on which the film fragment is based.

Supplemental material includes an introduction to the Digital Meme DVD series of Japanese silent films with a historical overview of the benshi tradition by Midori Sawata (2 minutes); a short film interpretation dance performance of a song Tôjin Okichi (1930) from a 9.5mm reduction print (4 minutes); a video afterword on the work of Kenji Mizoguchi and the evolving style of Japanese films by historian Tadao Sato presented in Japanese with English subtitles (19 minutes); and a four-page insert booklet in Japanese and English.

We recommend this home video edition of what remains of the film.

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