The very first event planned for the 2nd annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival was the screening that will be held on Friday evening – Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1933 silent classic The Water Magician. Both Shinsedai programmers Jasper Sharp and Chris MaGee knew they wanted to hold a special screening for the second year of the festival as a thank you to the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre community who were so generous in making the Shinsedai Cinema Festival possible. It was internationally renowned film curator, historian and author Jasper Sharp who made the leap and proposed a screening of a silent classic with a modern musical twist.
“Japanese silent films are rarely screened outside of Japan,” explains Sharp “but along with Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Page of Madness, [The Water Magician] is one of the best of the limited handful of titles that survive, and it’s from one of the world’s greatest ever directors too.” Those lucky enough to attend this once in a lifetime screening of The Water Magician in the JCCC’s Kobayashi Hall will not only see the genesis of Mizoguchi’s theme of the individual female versus the strict hierarchy of Japanese society, but one of the very first examples of an indepedent film production from Japan. The Water Magician‘s lead actress Takako Irie was the premier film starlet of her time. So popular were her screen appearances and so bankable were her films that at the age of only 22 Irie founded her own production company, Irie Productions, which operated outside of the established studio sytem of the time. Beyond the historical importance of The Water Magician is simply a sumptuous cinematic experience. “It looks absolutely gorgeous,” says Sharp, “with Mizoguchi’s atmospheric tracking shots and Kyoko Izumi’s vaguely ero-guro style carnival milieu making this a must-see.”
Adding to this classic film is a live musical score composed and performed by Toronto experimental quartet Vowls. “We are all big Mizoguchi fans and are really pleased with the opportunity to have a posthumous conversation with him using our own very personal language,” explains Vowls’ member Brandon Hocura, the man responsible for composing this score specifically for this Shinsedai Cinema Festival screening. “Scoring the hour and a half silent film has been very challenging, especially given how chatty this silent film is! This is of course due to the film’s reliance on the benshi, or narrator, who’s role is precisely what we have replaced. The focus of our score is to enhance the emotional content of the narrative and to still allow the film to retain its own unique voice. We are very pleased with the results and hope you are too. ”
We hope you all join us for this singular cinematic and musical event co-presented by our valued community partner the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival on Friday, July 24th at 7:00Pm at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. We know it’s something cinephiles and music lovers alike won’t want to miss.
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