is a Japanese film directed by

Norimasa Kaeriyama (1 March 1893 – 6 November 1964) was a pioneering Japanese film director and film theorist. Biography Beginning with articles he submitted to Yoshizawa Shōten's magazine ''Katsudō shashinkai'' while still a student, Kaeriyama developed ...

made in 1918 and released in 1919 by Tenkatsu. It is considered the first in a series of films aimed at reforming and modernizing Japanese cinema.

Plot

A country girl Teruko falls in love with the aristocrat Yanagisawa. When she once asks him what the meaning of life is, he responds that it is to live freely. Unfortunately, he does that by abandoning her. Teruko tries to commit suicide, but luckily is saved. Yanagisawa returns and apologizes to her.

Cast

Minoru Murata was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was one of the major directors of the silent era in Japan. Career Born in Tokyo, Murata started out as a shingeki actor on the stage. Murata's troupe appeared in the first " pure films ...

as Yanagisawa *

Harumi Hanayagi was a pioneering Japanese film and stage actress. Career In 1915, Hanayagi became a student at the Geijutsuza, the modern theater troupe led by Hōgetsu Shimamura and Sumako Matsui, and made her stage debut. She moved to the Tōjisha troupe in 1 ...

as Teruko * Sugisaku Aoyama as Teruko's father * Iyokichi Kondō as Yamashita *

Shizue Natsukawa was a Japanese actress. Career Natsukawa was born in Tokyo and first appeared on stage at age seven. She joined the Nikkatsu studio in 1927 and came to fame through such films as ''Kantsubaki'' and Kenji Mizoguchi's '' Tokyo March''. She married ...

as Teruko's younger sister

Production

Kaeriyama was one of the leaders of the

Pure Film Movement The was a trend in film criticism and filmmaking in 1910s and early 1920s Japan that advocated what were considered more modern and cinematic modes of filmmaking. Critics in such magazines as '' Kinema Record'' and '' Kinema Junpo'' complained th ...

, which aimed to reform Japanese cinema by eliminating its theatrical aspects and creating films that obeyed the essence of cinema. Kaeriyama was a film critic who worked at the Tenkatsu studio, which allowed him to direct his first film, ''The Glow of Life'', in 1918, but did not release it until 1919. (The same fate befell his second film, ''The Maid of the Deep Mountain'', which was also made in 1918 but not released until 1919 at the same time as ''The Glow of Life''.) He produced ''The Glow of Life'' under the rubric of the Motion Picture Art Association and used shingeki actors such as Iyokichi Kondō and

, the latter who later became a prominent film director. The story ended up being rather melodramatic, but its use of a modern script was considered revolutionary. Kaeriyama "attempted to make an integrated use of all the cinematic techniques he knew", but "the result was sometimes derivative and always eclectic". In an era where female roles on screen were still performed by men,

's "was the first billed appearance of a female performer" in Japanese cinema.

Reception

According to the film historian Joanne Bernardi, "reviews and comments were enthusiastic about Kaeriyama's attempt to try something new, but expressed disappointment in the films themselves." The film's potential excited and disappointed young film fans. The director Kajiro Yamamoto wrote that when he first saw it he felt that, "“A film had been made in Japan for the first time. Although there had been moving pictures of shinpa melodramas and ninjutsu pictures, there were as yet no films.… Yet somehow something was missing.… A true film would not be so crude." Still it was an influential film. According to

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...

, ''The Glow of Life'' "despite its failure to draw a large audience, was considered successful enough that the industry as a whole, scenting future profit, grew more reform-minded."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Glow of Life Japanese silent films Japanese black-and-white films