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Kinugasa, 1928, Jujiro. In the Yoshiwara, a young man is blinded in a fight; his sister works to keep them alive and is pulled toward the man who hurt him. Kinugasa took a print to Europe: Germany released it as Shadows of Yoshiwara; Paris and London played it; New York knew it as Slums of Tokyo. Silent Era and SFSFF note it as the first Japanese feature to get a real Western commercial run, long before Rashomon. BFI kept a print when the Japanese silents thinned out.
In one programme
Kinugasa carried a print to Europe and the West saw it as Shadows of Yoshiwara, decades before Rashomon. A blinded brother, a sister pulled toward the man who blinded him, and light used as a weapon. Watch what the lighting does to the sister's face. The Expressionism is imported; the rooms are not.
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