[HN Gopher] Japan's silent movie culture is still going ___________________________________________________________________ Japan's silent movie culture is still going Author : lermontov Score : 50 points Date : 2023-09-28 19:02 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (petertasker.asia) (TXT) w3m dump (petertasker.asia) | hotnfresh wrote: | > The surprising thing is not that in the silent era Japanese | audiences opted to watch films with live human mediation. What is | strange is that no other countries -- apart from Korea, Taiwan | and Thailand, all then under Japanese influence -- adopted such | an excellent and fun idea. | | Since these performances are noted as including ad-lib commentary | and anachronistic (to the film) references, seems like MST3K is | pretty close, though they comment over talkies. | | [edit] I've also been to a couple showings with people who were | on the production calling out jokes and commentary over it, and | have been at film festivals where live-riffs or commentary were | done by some set of podcasters or another. I'm in a trash-tier | city so these are rare, but I bet they can be found in major US | cities on a pretty regular basis, if you're not picky about the | sort of movie you'll be seeing. | endominus wrote: | Not to mention the Rocky Horror Picture Show as a singular | example of an audience taking part in a showing (a friend of | mine showed it to me and other friends at a party, beginning | the night by apologizing that he alone would not be able to do | all of the normal ad-lib that a full theater would perform). | stock_toaster wrote: | I wonder if the prior existence of Rakugo made it more | culturally normative. | AnotherGoodName wrote: | One thing that's really nice about silent movies/tv is that it's | truely language agnostic. You'd be surprised just how much of the | world knows "Mr Bean" for example. It's syndicated just about | everywhere in the world and crosses language and culture | barriers. | | I'm really surprised silent movies/tv isn't more common. Many | diverse nations have a need for language agnostic entertainment | and it's trivial to syndicate such media throughout the world. | Papua New Guinea for example struggles to accomodate all of it's | languages. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Papua_New_Guinea . | Silent media is helpful there to provide a common point of | connection across the nation (they used Mr Bean as a mascott for | awareness during covid). | mrob wrote: | >no other countries -- apart from Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, all | then under Japanese influence -- adopted such an excellent and | fun idea. | | Some movie theaters in Uganda also have live commentary and | translation, provided by "video jokers". You can hear such | commentary by VJ Emmie in the famous Ugandan action movie "Who | Killed Captain Alex?", which you can watch on the Official | Wakaliwood Youtube channel: | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEoGrbKAyKE | | Despite the very low budget, the movie is surprisingly | entertaining, and the commentary makes it even better. | syntaxing wrote: | Is this the movie with the awesome helicopter scene? | twic wrote: | Yes, where the Tiger Mafia steal a police helicopter, and | blow up a building, with incredible CGI. | soulofmischief wrote: | The commentary is the best part. Everybody in Uganda knows | Kung-Fu! | gascoigne wrote: | This was a fascinating read. Do the benshis change the story? Or | interpret it differently than intended? It sounds so foreign to | me that I'd love to experience it. | [deleted] | anjel wrote: | For those further interested, Hamilton College has collated a | digital archive of historical and modern (including VR) benshi | content | | https://benshi.hamiltonlits.org/main/ | AlbertCory wrote: | I'd actually never heard of benshi. | | _The General_ is a silent film that you can show to any modern | audience, and they 'll love it. I actually did this once in a | movie Meetup. | hotnfresh wrote: | Silent comedies hold up exceptionally well. I've enjoyed nearly | everything of Keaton's and Chaplin's I've watched, which is | quite a bit. Haven't dug into Lloyd yet, but I'm expecting that | to go well, too. | | Dramas are more hit-or-miss and benefit more from some effort | at acclimatization, I think--that is, I think the average | viewer is likely to bounce off even the very-good ones without | putting some time & work into getting used to the medium. | e0 wrote: | Huh! Coincidentally YouTube suggested this older video about | _benshi_ to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWc__spYakA | xrd wrote: | The author seems like an interesting personality. He's a (self | described, but...) finance guru. Great writing. | | I'm sad I didn't go see a benshi film when I was in Tokyo a few | months back. | | I wonder if there is a connection to the rakugo tradition? Seems | like it could be an offshoot. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-09-29 23:00 UTC)