We often oversee that apart from script writer, actor and technical crew, the promoter is also a key part of the film industry. It is vital that films are accessible and made available to the public. Known as ‘The Mother of Japanese Cinema’, Madame Kawakita(川喜多かしこ, 1908–1993) devoted her entire life into promoting, preserving and inheriting films.

Neither a film director nor actor, yet Madame Kawakita’s life is intertwined with the film industry. A secretary at Towa Shoji (later the company merged with Toho) in her youth, Madame Kawakita encountered her husband then and the couple later married. Frequent in European film festivals, they introduced world cinema such as Jean Renoir, Luis Bunuel, Ingmar Bergman, Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Satyajit Ray and other masters’ work to Japan. What’s more, they pushed Japanese films outside their national boundary to the world and generously helped young directors (to the extent of financing their work). Kurosawa Akira, Oshima Nagisa, Ichikawa Kon and other iconic figures in Japan cinema owe much of their achievement to the couple, who had been a constant drive behind their work.

Mr. and Mrs. Kawakita started preserving cinema work actively in the 1960s, established ‘Japan Film Council’ film library (former establishment of the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute) with The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. The collection includes years’ worth of cinema documentaries, film copies and such precious material. The couple also organised numerous Japanese film tours around the world.

2008 is the 100th anniversary of Madame Kawakita’s birthday. The Hong Kong Film Archive is joining forces with the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute to organise the ‘A Wreath for Madame Kawakita’ programme, showing twenty two re-mastered films directed by eight former Kawakita Award winners. These cinema classics set a perfect example to show what proper cinema promotion and preservation can achieve in the long run.

Selected Films:

Kurosawa Akira (1910 – 1998)
Rashomon (1950)
Ikiru (1952)

Oshima Nagisa (1932 – )
Violence at Noon (1966)
Boy (1969)
The Ceremony (1971)

Shindo Kaneto (1912 – )
The Naked Island (1960)
Onibaba (1964)
A Last Note (1995)

Imamura Shohei (1926 – 2006)
Intentions of Murder (1964)
Vengeance is Mine (1979)
Black Rain (1989)

Haneda Sumiko (1926 – )
Ode to Mt. Hayachine (1982)
Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa (2004)

Ichikawa Kon (1915 – 2008)
The Crowded Streetcar (1957)
Conflagration (1958)
Her Brother (1960)

Yamada Yoji (1931 – )
Where Spring Comes Late (1970)
Tora-san’s Sunrise and Sunset (1976)
The Yellow Handkerchief (1977)

Suzuki Seijun (1923 – )
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Zigeunerweisen (1980)

Text: THINK SILLY
Photo Courtesy: Film Programmes Office
Update: 16 May 2009

A WREATH FOR MADAME KAWAKITA
28 May – 12 July 2009

FILM PROGRAMMES OFFICE
www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp