Dubbing is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sound to create the finished soundtrack.
The cinema of Japan has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived.
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards.
Voice acting in Japan is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including anime, video games, audio dramas, commercials, and dubbing for non-Japanese films and television programs.
Korean Confucianism is the form of Confucianism that emerged and developed in Korea. One of the most substantial influences in Korean intellectual history was the introduction of Confucian thought as part of the cultural influence from China.
The cinema of Taiwan is deeply rooted in the island's unique history. Since its introduction to Taiwan in 1901 under Japanese rule, cinema has developed in Taiwan under ROC rule through several distinct stages. It has also developed outside the Hong Kong mainstream and the censorship of the People's Republic of China.
The term "Cinema of Korea" encompasses the motion picture industries of North and South Korea. As with all aspects of Korean life during the past century, the film industry has often been at the mercy of political events, from the late Joseon dynasty to the Korean War to domestic governmental interference. While both countries have relatively robust film industries today, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. North Korean films tend to portray their communist or revolutionary themes.
A Page of Madness is a 1926 Japanese silent film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971, the film is the product of an avant-garde group of artists in Japan known as the Shinkankakuha who tried to overcome naturalistic representation.
Benshi (弁士) were Japanese performers who provided live narration for silent films. Benshi are sometimes called katsudō-benshi (活動弁士) or katsuben (活弁).
Matsunosuke Onoe, sometimes known as Medama no Matchan , was a Japanese actor. His birth name is Tsuruzo Nakamura. He is sometimes credited as Yukio Koki, Tamijaku Onoe, or Tsunusaburo Onoe, and as a kabuki artist he went by the name Tsurusaburo Onoe. He gained great popularity, appearing in over 1,000 films, and has been called the first superstar of Japanese cinema.
Midori Sawato is a Japanese benshi or katsuben.
Shunsui Matsuda was the last Japanese benshi of the silent film era. Shunsui Matsuda's love for silent films was so great he dedicated his life to finding and preserving valuable classic films from the golden era.
The Water Magician is a 1933 Japanese silent drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is based on the story of the same name by Kyōka Izumi.
Orizuru Osen, also titled The Downfall of Osen, is a 1935 Japanese silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Isuzu Yamada. It is based on a short story by Kyōka Izumi.
Orochi is a 1925 black and white Japanese silent film with benshi accompaniment directed by Buntarō Futagawa. It is the most popular and beloved film of Tsumasaburō Bandō, featuring the star at the height of his fame.
Kodakara Sodo is a 1935 black and white Japanese silent film with benshi accompaniment directed by Torajiro Saito. This is a rare example of a silent Japanese slapstick film that has survived to this day.
The Pure Film Movement 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.
Musei Tokugawa was a Japanese benshi, actor, raconteur, essayist, and radio and television personality. Musei first came to prominence as a benshi, a narrator of films during the silent era in Japan. He was celebrated for his restrained but erudite narration that was popular among intellectual film fans. He concentrated on foreign films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at high-class theaters like the Aoikan and the Musashinokan, but also performed Japanese works such as Teinosuke Kinugasa's experimental masterpiece A Page of Madness (1926). As the silent era ended, Musei switched to storytelling on stage and on radio, and also began acting and doing narrations in films. He was also famous for his essays, humorous novels, and autobiographical writings, publishing nearly fifty books in his life. With the advent of television in Japan, Musei also became a prominent presence in that medium.
Byeonsa is a Korean word that referred to orators that worked in Korean cinema theaters in the silent film era. Byeonsa stood near the screen and narrated and commented on the events of the film. Some performers were particularly popular and audiences would visit theaters not only to see their favorite actors, but specific byeonsa.
Walter K. Lew is a Korean-American poet and scholar. He has taught creative writing, East Asian literatures, and Asian American literature at Brown University, Cornell University, Mills College, the University of Miami, and UCLA. Aside from the award-winning Treadwinds: Poems and Intermedia Texts, Lew is the author, co-author, or editor of seven books and several special journal issues and artist's books. Lew's translations and scholarship on Korean literature and Asian American literature have been widely anthologized and he was the first U.S. artist to revive the art of movietelling, beginning in 1982.
