What Made Her Do It?

What Made Her Do It?
What Made Her Do It?
	Theatrical Poster
Japanese	何が彼女をそうさせたか
Directed by	Shigeyoshi Suzuki
Written by	Shigeyoshi Suzuki
Based on	That Girl Sumiko, What Made Her Do It? by Seikichi Fujimori
Produced by	Teikoku Kinema Engei
Starring	Keiko Takatsu; Rintarō Fujima; Yōyō Kojima; Hidekatsu Maki;
Cinematography	Seiji Tsukakoshi
Music by	Silent
Production; company	Teikoku Kinema Engei
Distributed by	Kinokuniya
Release date	1930
Running time	147 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

What Made Her Do It? (Nani ga kanojo o sō saseta ka (Japanese: 何が彼女をそうさせたか)) is a 1930 Japanese silent film directed by Shigeyoshi Suzuki, based on the Shingeki play. It was the top-grossing Japanese film of the silent era.^[1]^[2] Notable as an example of a so-called "tendency film" with strong anti-capitalist themes, the film inspired a riot in its showing in Tokyo's Asakusa district^[1] with media reports of riots in other cities.^[2]

Plot[]

The plot centers on a schoolgirl, Sumiko (Keiko Takatsu) who has been sent to live with her uncle. Arriving to a harried household with many children, her aunt and alcoholic uncle are annoyed by her arrival. A note, which Sumiko cannot read, announces that her father has killed himself. After being denied schooling and placed into labor for the family, Sumiko is eventually sold to a circus where she suffers at the hands of its members and ringmaster. Sumiko escapes with another circus performer, Shintaro (Ryuujin Unno), but Sumiko joins a team of thieves and ends up arrested. She is given work in the home of a wealthy aristocratic family, who denies even the simplest of pleasures to their staff out of cruelty. She is sent to a Christian orphanage, where she is humiliated for writing a letter to an old friend, and must make a public speech renouncing her ways and accepting Christ into her heart. Given the opportunity, Sumiko instead denounces the church, and ends up burning it down.

Cast[]

Keiko Takatsu as Nakamura Sumiko
Rintarō Fujima as Hiroshi Hasegawa
Ryuujin Unno as Shintaro
Yōyō Kojima
Hidekatsu Maki
Itaru Hamada
Takashi Asano
Saburō Oono

Restoration[]

The film, thought to be lost after World War II, was restored in 1997 from a partial print found in the Russian Gosfilmosfond archive in 1994. The restoration added title cards approximating what was known of missing scenes, based on a copy of the director's screenplay provided by his family.^[3] These notes were added to the start and finish of the film under supervision of Ota Yoneo.^[4]

Reception[]

While contemporary criticism of the film includes film historian Donald Richie's perspective that the film is "a melodramatic potboiler,"^[2] the film was a box-office success that lead to increased scrutiny and eventually government censorship of political messaging in films of the era.^[2] The film has been compared to radical German theater and Soviet-era propaganda films,^[4] though made by a commercial studio which embraced a tendency toward melodrama and vulgarity.^[5]

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1982). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded ed.). Princeton (N.J.): Princeton university press. p. 68. ISBN 0691007926. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Richie, Donald (2005). A hundred years of Japanese film : a concise history, with selective guide to videos and DVDs/ Donald Richie. Foreword by Paul Schrader (revised edition, 2005 ed.). Tokyo [u.a.]: Kodansha International. p. 91. ISBN 4770029950. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
^ Yono, Ota (2000). "Restoration of the movie" (PDF). Bulletin of Osaka Art University (in Japanese). Retrieved 11 December 2017.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Bernardi, Joanne (2001). Writing in light : the silent scenario and the japanese pure film movement. Detroit [Mich.]: Wayne state university press. p. 318. ISBN 0814329616. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
^ Nowell-Smith, edited by Geoffrey (1997). The Oxford history of world cinema (Paperback ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 316. ISBN 0198742428.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

[Anderson-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1982). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded ed.). Princeton (N.J.): Princeton university press. p. 68. ISBN 0691007926. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

[Richie-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Richie, Donald (2005). A hundred years of Japanese film : a concise history, with selective guide to videos and DVDs/ Donald Richie. Foreword by Paul Schrader (revised edition, 2005 ed.). Tokyo [u.a.]: Kodansha International. p. 91. ISBN 4770029950. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

[3] Yono, Ota (2000). "Restoration of the movie" (PDF). Bulletin of Osaka Art University (in Japanese). Retrieved 11 December 2017.

[Bernardi-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b Bernardi, Joanne (2001). Writing in light : the silent scenario and the japanese pure film movement. Detroit [Mich.]: Wayne state university press. p. 318. ISBN 0814329616. Retrieved 12 December 2017.

[OxfordGuide-5] Nowell-Smith, edited by Geoffrey (1997). The Oxford history of world cinema (Paperback ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 316. ISBN 0198742428.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

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