The Black Cat (黒ニャゴ/Kuro Nyago, 1929) is a record talkiefrom the silent film period. Arecord talkie was a silent film played synchronously with a phonograph record. Like today’s music videos, record talkies weredesigned as promotional devices for record companies and their songs. People who enjoyed The Black Cat animation could have bought the record and played it on their own gramophone (record companies also manufactured gramophones) at home.
Thechildren’s song The Black Cat waswritten by Kōka Sassa (佐々紅華,1886-1961), husband of the popular Asakusa Opera singer Ruby Takai (高井 ルビー,1904-unknown), with lyrics by OtowaShigure (時雨 音羽, 1899-1980). It was released by Victor Records and featuresthe vocal talent of child star HidekoHirai (平井 英子, b. 1918). Hideko Hirai also features with Ruby Takai inthe Kōka Sassa hit Chameko’sDay, which was made into an animation directed by Kiyoshi Nishikura (seereview) in 1931.
Onthe other side of the Pacific, WaltDisney had made splash a year earlier with the release of Steamboat Willie (1928) which heco-directed with Ub Iwerks. While not the first animated film to have a synchronoussoundtrack, Steamboat Willie wascertainly the most successful and marked the debut of the iconic MickeyMouse. Sound on film technology was muchslower to come to Japan – not only because of a lack of technology but becauseof the tenacity of the benshi tradition. The first animated film with a synchronoussoundtrack would not be made in Japan until 1933: Kenzō Masaoka’s lost film The World of Power and Women (Chikara toOnna no Yo no Naka). The first steptowards sound films in Japan were the record talkies, and The Black Cat is believed to be the first of its kind.
Thefilm is directed and animated by the legendary Noburo Ōfuji (大藤 信郎, 1900-61) inhis signature chiyogami cutoutanimation style (cutouts using traditional Japanese paper). Due to the expense and relative scarcity ofcelluloid in Japan in this period, cutouts were a common method for making animatedfilms. It was shot on 9.5mm film on aPathé Baby. I watched the film on the Kinokuniya DVD Ōfuji Noburō: Kūkō no Tensai (2010). The film was digitized by the National FilmCenter and synchronized with the original Victorrecord. Both the soundtrack and the filmshow their age with much popping and scratching, but as so many films from thisera have been lost we are lucky that the film survives in a relatively completecondition.
Theopening shot is of chiyogami cherryblossom trees shedding a few petals. Someboys walk along and sing of their desire to have a black cat with a red collarwho dances. A black cat appears andsings and dances for them. The cat thenintroduces her brother, a tabby cat, who also sings and dances for them. The boys also join in with the dancing and singing. As with any successful children’s song, The Black Cat has a catchy tune and isrepetitive. It alternates betweensong and dialogue. One can imaginechildren of the era mimicking the cat’s dance, not to mention the cry of thecat as she sings. The bouncy rhythm ofthe song would also encourage clapping. The second refrain might have inspired the children to leap like the cat’stiger ancestors, while the third refrain might have gotten a bit wild withchildren pretending to throw a mouse just like the cat.
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| Examples of mattes being used in The Black Cat |
Thecharacter movement is less complex than later Ōfuji films, but it is still verycharming. Ōfuji uses two main set-upsfor the piece: a cherry tree orchard and a bamboo forest. Some of the more complicated sequencesinvolve spinning chiyogami paper andthe “tracking” shots of characters walking. I put “tracking” in brackets because it is not actually the camera thatis moving, but the paper under the camera between shots – but this animationtechnique creates the illusion that the camera is moving over the scene. As is typical for films of this era, mattes are used in lieu of close-ups. There was no such thing as a zoom lens in the 1920s and it would havebeen more cost effective / time efficient to matte the image than to change thecamera set-up for a close-up. All in all, it is a delightful piece of early animation history.
Inaddition to the DVD Ōfuji Noburō: Kūkō no Tensai, The BlackCat appears on the Digital Meme Box Set JapaneseAnime Classic Collection. A sampleof the film with English subs can be screened on Crunchyroll.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012
