Mediators of Modernity: "Photo-interpreters" in Japanese Silent Cinema

The film critic and theorist Kaeriyama Norimasa, 1 writing in the trade journal Kinema Record in August 1915—for the benefit of foreign readers he wrote in English—, defines the role of benshi/katsuben as that of "photo- interpreters." The case of the benshi thus provides an excellent example of the processes of modification and alteration to the introduction of new technologies, and the adaptation of local populations to the accompanying introduction of new worldviews. In this article I shall explore two avenues of thought in relation to the role played by the benshi in the history of early Japanese cinema. First, following on from Kaeriyama Norimasa, I shall argue that the benshi functioned as mediators of modernity through their interpretation of foreign films for Japanese audiences. Second, I shall explore their role within the domestically produced melodramatic genres (shinpa-derived traditions of "women's weepies" and the matatabimono "men's weepies") as vehicles through which characters were given a greater sense of psychological depth, while exploring how their inclusion as a central element in the film experience impacted the development of cinematic conventions in these genres. For the discussion of narrational norms and the benshi within the melodramatic traditions of early cinema, I have drawn heavily on a set of video releases of Japanese films covering the decade from the mid-1920s to