Discover the hidden beauty of early Japanese cinema – restored 1930s kami eiga (paper films) paired with haunting live koto (traditional musical instrument and cello for an unforgettable cinematic experience.
In the 1930s, several Japanese companies produced films made on paper (“kami firumu”) instead of celluloid. The Japanese Paper Film Project preserves the surviving movies and promotes scholarship about these films.From 1932 – 1938, two Japanese Companies dominated the paper film market. Most well known are REFCY, based in Tokyo, and Katei Toki (“Home Talkie”), based in Osaka. They produced animated and live action films and often in color. Many of the films contained synchronized sound tracks on 78-rpm vinyl and were accompanied by a Benshi narrator.
Given the short period of production, the varying paper quality, and WWII’s devastation, very few Japanese paper film prints survive. Now, almost 90 years later, the handful of surviving prints are beginning to deteriorate. Thus, this project is racing against time to preserve the films before they disappear entirely. Very little scholarship exists on Japanese paper films in English but a few recent works by Japanese scholars prove invaluable.
Music and Live score by Duo YUMENO