Tokyo Street scenes cine in Dec. 1948

[xayraa33]

I like black and white film and found this high quality footage interesting of Tokyo Japan streets not even four years after the end of the war.

Apparently it was stock footage shot to be used in the Hollywood Film "Tokyo Joe" starring Humphrey Bogart but not much of it was used in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVbDdR9Fi90

 

[peterm1]

Very nice. Thank you.

I have previously seen the beginning of this clip quite recently but did not have time to watch it all the way through and then lost track of it so for me it is particularly timely and pleasing that you should post it here. I admire the Japanese culture very much, and it is an interesting society.

At that time I was researching historic videos and photos of Japan when I found it and discovered how many images and clips of Japan are on youtube dating in some cases back to the 19th C.

At the time I was also looking for a link to some images I had previously seen made by a Westerner (American I think) who was based in Japan in the 1950s. Another link I have lost and would love to find again. (I think he was a teacher???) If anyone knows of it I would be much obliged.

I also kind of like the following video by Michael Rogge of a Japanese school kid's life in 1963.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8_ToLnPYhw

Rogge by the way was based in Hong Kong in the post war period of the 1940s/50s and was a keen film maker who documented both his youthful life in HK and his travels in Asia and has since posted his work at Youtube. Though not quite up to the technical standard of the video you posted which certainly looks pro, they provide a nice historical record of HK that shows just how much it changed in the intervening time.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSoPLkmWb7wLC3OXDWCietA

Thanks again.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I also watched 1926 and 1916 video.
And then Berlin in 1954 and in 1982.

 

[xayraa33]

Very nice. Thank you.

I have previously seen the beginning of this clip quite recently but did not have time to watch it all the way through and then lost track of it so for me it is particularly timely and pleasing that you should post it here. I admire the Japanese culture very much, and it is an interesting society.

At that time I was researching historic videos and photos of Japan when I found it and discovered how many images and clips of Japan are on youtube dating in some cases back to the 19th C.

At the time I was looking for a link to some images I had previously seen made by a Westerner (American I think) who was based in Japan in the 1950s. Another link I have lost and would love to find again. (I think he was a teacher???) If anyone knows of it I would be much obliged.

I also kind of like the following video by Michael Rogge of a Japanese school kid's life in 1963.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8_ToLnPYhw

Rogge by the way was based in Hong Kong in the post war period of the 1940s/50s and was a keen film maker who documented both his youthful life in HK and his travels in Asia and has since posted his work at Youtube. Though not quite up to the technical standard of the video you posted which certainly looks pro, they provide a nice historical record of HK that shows just how much it changed in the intervening time.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSoPLkmWb7wLC3OXDWCietA

Thanks again.

I am glad that you got the chance to re-visit that 1948 Tokyo footage, Peter

Was the "American teacher in Japan" from the 1950s that you mentioned a still photographer or a motion picture photographer?

I have some faint recollection of seeing a Youtube video a few years ago about an American photographer in Japan in the form of colour home movies from the 1950s, but I cannot seem to find that video on Youtube anymore.

 

[Muju79]

Thoroughly enjoyed, especially the market part, thank you!

I like black and white film and found this high quality footage interesting of Tokyo Japan streets not even four years after the end of the war.

Apparently it was stock footage shot to be used in the Hollywood Film "Tokyo Joe" starring Humphrey Bogart but not much of it was used in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVbDdR9Fi90

 

[chris91387]

to me, these look like backplates shot for rear projection "walking scenes" most likely to be filmed here in the States with actors. before green screen they just put screen behind actors and projected film footage. the stabilization is real good.

such a beautiful city

 

[peterm1]

I am glad that you got the chance to re-visit that 1948 Tokyo footage, Peter

Was the "American teacher in Japan" from the 1950s that you mentioned a still photographer or a motion picture photographer?

I have some faint recollection of seeing a Youtube video a few years ago about an American photographer in Japan in the form of colour home movies from the 1950s, but I cannot seem to find that video on Youtube anymore.

Thanks for your reply xayraa. I think the photographer was a still photographer (hobbyist) but there may have been some movie work as well. I may be wrong but my recollection was that there were some color photos. I wish I could recall more (including where I found it) but it is just one of those niggling things - I would like to see it again as it has been a few years and multiple searches on Google has turned up lots of historical photos of Japan but not these.

The following collections have some similar ones though I do not think they are the ones I am looking for. (Lovely color)

https://www.pinterest.com.au/cicivy/coloured-slide-photos-of-life-in-japan-1950/

https://www.vintag.es/2011/11/photos-of-japan-from-1950-by-herb.html

 

[shimokita]

There is a camera shop ( カメラ ) in the video at 4:13...
might be able to track it down \(ツ)/

 

[David Hughes]

to me, these look like backplates shot for rear projection "walking scenes" most likely to be filmed here in the States with actors. before green screen they just put screen behind actors and projected film footage. the stabilization is real good.

such a beautiful city

Hi,

That was a nice find; I thought it would be for background but, I think, in those days it would have been done using a mask from the original negative, the original negative and then sandwiched or run/exposed twice.

Regards, David

PS Does anyone recognize the car that appears and goes round a corner at about 5 or 6 seconds from the start?

 

[Out to Lunch]

Very nice. I especially liked the 3d rush. Thanks for sharing. Amazing when you compare it with this short movie shot 15 years later: "A Day in Tokyo" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTJJC4gfSAU

 

[p.giannakis]

There is a camera shop ( カメラ ) in the video at 4:13...
might be able to track it down \(ツ)/

That would be a great project!

 

[jonmanjiro]

There is a camera shop ( カメラ ) in the video at 4:13...
might be able to track it down \(ツ)/

That would be a great project!

I tried, but no luck. The name on the storefront > メハエ商会 < only gets me hits on blog comments about this video (such as here and here). Looks like the shop is long gone. Great vid though.

FWIW there's a sign that says 日比谷 (Hibiya, which is near Ginza) in the first scene (same location as the third scene) and a sign that says 道玄坂 (Dogenzaka, which is in Shibuya) in the second scene with the girls walking in kimonos.

 

[semi-ambivalent]

In a similar vein, "The Search" was filmed in Germany in 1948 and includes backgrounds of war rubble. A good movie too (Montgomery Clift before his car accident).

 

[xayraa33]

Hi,

That was a nice find; I though it would be for back ground but, I think, in those days it would have been done using a mask from the original negative, the original negative and then sandwiched or run/exposed twice.

Regards, David

PS Does anyone recognize the car that appears and goes round a corner at about 5 or 6 seconds from the start?

It could have been used for back-screen projection ( just like they did moving car interior shots back then in film noir days) in the Hollywood studio for the frontal Bogart scenes and a body double was used on location when he was filmed from the back. The movie trailer of "Tokyo Joe" shows this starting at point :42

The car going around the corner is an American 1946 or 47 Ford deluxe sedan, in LHD of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTCRoX0wDjk

 

[Taipei-metro]

thoughts
about Japan Aug 1945

very high quality b and w films came out from Japan just 5 years after the war, Rashomon 1950, Seven Samurai 1954...

i'm thinking about a NHK documentary i saw in 2015, about a photograph shot a few hours after 'Little Boy, the Bomb' on 'the Miyuki Bridge' 御幸橋, 8-6-1945 in Hiroshima...


60 yrs later, computer tech traced the people in the image and tell the story...
...those poor poor people in the morning of a summer day in 1945 on the bridge called 'A Happiness Bridge' (御幸橋, Miyuki Bridge)

https://youtu.be/WcMBhD8rhFs?t=166

NHK photo reproduced by
taipei-metro from a viewSonic screen w a Fuji X-T100, Fujinon 15-45