''The Daughter of the Samurai'' (german: Die Tochter des Samurai,

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: ) is a 1937

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Arnold Fanck Arnold Fanck (6 March 1889 – 28 September 1974) was a German film director and pioneer of the mountain film genre. He is best known for the extraordinary alpine footage he captured in such films as '' The Holy Mountain'' (1926), '' The White He ...

and

Mansaku Itami Mansaku Itami (伊丹万作; real name Yoshitoyo Ikeuchi 池内義豊; 2 January 1900 – 21 September 1946) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter known for his critical, sometimes satirical portraits of Japan and its history. H ...

, with special effects by

Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director and cinematographer. Known as the he worked on 250 feature films in a career spanning 50 years. He is regarded as one of the co-creators of the ''Godzilla'' series, as well as the main creator of the ...

. Starring Setsuko Hara,

Ruth Eweler Ruth Eweler (March 19, 1913 – October 1, 1947) was a German actress born in Plettenberg. She appeared in a number of films during the 1930s and 1940s, notably as a female lead in the 1937 film ''The Daughter of the Samurai'', which was a German ...

and

Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading ma ...

, it was the first of two co-productions between

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Fanck, who was famous for making mountaineering films, was possibly chosen as director because of his connections to the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

. Fanck and Itami clashed a great deal during the film's production, and in effect created two separate versions for release in their respective countries.Mayo, Rimer & Kerkham p.226

Plot

Yamato Teruo (

Isamu Kosugi was a Japanese actor and film director. Career Born in Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, Kosugi first studied at the Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō before joining the Nikkatsu studio in 1925. He came to prominence in tendency films such as '' Ikeru ...

) returns to Japan after spending six years at an agricultural college in Germany. Teruo is the adopted son of an old samurai family, and is expected to marry the eldest daughter, Mitsuko ( Setsuko Hara). However, Teruo has become infected with the idea of Western individualism during his stay in Western Europe, and refuses to bow to the demands of society. Instead, he confounds his future father-in-law Yamato Iwao (

) by announcing that he intends to marry a German journalist, Gerda Storm (

), whom he met on the ship back to Japan. Gerda, however, is a blonde, chaste, Aryan woman, and will not agree to a mixed-race relationship. She attempts to convince him of his duty to the Japanese race and traditions and to reconcile him with his family. Meanwhile, Mitsuko, feeling dishonored by Teruo's rejection, attempts to commit suicide by throwing herself into a volcano. She is rescued at the last second by Teruo, and the couple is romantically reunited. Sometime later, the young couple and their baby are now living in

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese ...

, the "New Earth", working on a farm under the benevolent gaze of a vigilant soldier guarding against the ever-present threat of Bolshevism.

Cast

Setsuko Hara and Ruth Eweler in Atarashiki Tsuchi

Reception

The film was poorly received in Japan. It was viewed as a condescending treatment of Japan as an exotic Oriental nation that needed German political ideas as if it had none of its own, and the racist ideology of blood and soil was considered disturbing. One reviewer wrote:

Notes

References

;Bibliography * * Hull, David Stewart. ''Film in the Third Reich: a Study of the German Cinema, 1933-1945''. University of California Press, 1969. * Mayo, Marlene J. & Rimer J. Thomas & Kerkham, H. Eleanor. ''War, Occupation, and Creativity: Japan and East Asia, 1920-1960''. University of Hawaii Press, 2001.

External links

*
Infos about the shooting of The Daughter of The Samurai with link to the photogallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daughter of the Samurai, The 1937 multilingual films 1937 films Anti-communist propaganda German multilingual films Films of Nazi Germany Japanese romantic drama films 1930s German-language films 1930s Japanese-language films Fascist propaganda Films directed by Arnold Fanck Films directed by Mansaku Itami Films set in Japan Japanese multilingual films German romantic drama films 1937 romantic drama films German black-and-white films Japanese black-and-white films 1930s German films