Triple Feature: Fighting Friends (1929), Singing Lovebirds (1939), Buddhist Mass for Goemon Ishikawa (1930)

This screening event is part of the “Comic Legacies on the Japanese Silver Screen” film series taking place from February through April.

All films are screened in Japanese with English subtitles.

Fighting Friends (和製喧嘩友達, 1929)
directed by Yasujiro Ozu
14m, 35mm

Ozu is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time but he started by making comedies. A simple story of two friends who live together in a poor tenement and who share about everything in life, until they gallantly rescue a woman injured in a road accident. Survives in a 14 minute fragment of the original 77 minutes. (Mubi.com)

Buddhist Mass for Goemon Ishikawa (石川五右ヱ門の法事, 1930)
directed by Torajiro Saito
21m, 35mm

The adventures of a modern day descendant of a famed Edo era thief are the basis for this short supernatural comedy romp. Saito was the king of slapstick comedy directors. (imdb.com)

Singing Lovebirds (鴛鴦歌合戰, 1939)
directed by Masahiro Makino
1h 9m, 35mm

Masahiro Makino here offers a lively Japanese musical that follows a love story between a samurai and a courtesan during the Edo period of Japan. Poor young Oharu loves her ronin neighbor but is under pressure to marry a lord because of the debts owed by her umbrella-making father. This is your chance to see Takashi Shimura of the Seven Samurai sing a song! (Mubi.com)

This series is co-sponsored by The National Film Archive of Japan, Yale Film Archive, and Council on East Asian Studies, with support from the Japan Foundation.

Prints for this screening were provided by The National Film Archive of Japan.