Uzumasa Hassei Eiga (太秦発声映画)
Uzumasa Hassei Eiga (established 1933-stopped production in 1936) is a movie company once existed in Kyoto. Being established within the site of J.O. Studio which imported advanced talkie system, Uzumasa Hassei Eiga produced talkie movies in tie-ups with Nikkatsu before any other film companies, and carved out a new era of Japanese films.
Brief History and Summary
J. Osawa Co., Ltd. built and opened the 'J. O. Studio' for rent at Uzumasa Kaiko no Yashiro Station in Kyoto that used a pioneering talkie system imported by Yoshio OSAWA, who was the eldest son of the CEO of the same company, Tokutaro OSAWA. Uzumasa Hassei Eiga' was established within the same compound by Tsunehisa IKENAGA, who was invited as an advisor for J. O. Studio after resigning the chief of Nikkatsu Studio.
The first film after establishment was "Masashige KUSUNOKI" with executive producer So IKENAGA, directed by Tomiyasu IKEADA and starring Sesshu HAYAKAWA, and it was released on June 1 of the same year. When Masahiro MAKINO established the Makino Talkie Seisaku-jo and began mass production of talkie films in 1935, he often collaborated with Nikkatsu. However, all directors did not become familiar with talkie performance easily, and even Takuji FURUMI and Seika SHIBA famous for performances filled with originality failed in talkie and Furumi returned to Kyoto Eiga Co., Ltd. of Furuichi while Shiba to Zensho Kinema of Nara to retreat to silent films.
The company hired Sadao YAMANAKA, who was a member of 'Kinpachi KAJIWARA', which was a group of script writers that proved their ability in talkie scripts, and Yamanaka shot "Soshun KOCHIYAMA" with Nikkatsu, and his disciple assistant director Ryo HAGIWARA (film director) gained and adapted the original script of Yamanaka to make a debut as a director in "Ochazuke Samurai" (literally, "rice soup samurai"), starring Minoru TAKASE.
J. O. (J. Osawa Co., Ltd.) then began to eventually produce with Toho Eiga Haikyu (Toho Movie Distributing Agency), and Uzumasa Hassei stopped its production at the end of same year. The last work was "Ojosan Ronin" (Lady Masterless Samurai) directed by Kichiro TSUJI, starring Ryutaro OKI and Fujiko FUKAMIZU, and was released on January 28, 1937 distributed by Nikkatsu. J. O. Studio established Toho Film by the merger of four companies and the studio became the 'Toho Eiga Kyoto Studio' (closed in 1941).