Paper short abstract:

This study clarifies another postwar Japanese film history that had been alienated from the dominant narratives. It focuses on the roles of Korean residents in Japan and Japanese filmmakers who worked closely related to Koreans during the postwar independent production movement.

Paper long abstract:

Picturing another postwar Japanese film history that had been alienated from the dominant narratives, this study focuses on the roles of Korean residents in Japan and Japanese filmmakers who worked closely related to Koreans in Mingei Productions and others during the postwar independent production movement.

　After the WWII, Japan experienced a wave of red purges against the backdrop of the advent of the Cold War and the Korean War. After leaving major film companies, the filmmakers set up several independent productions to bring out masterpieces depicting society and people, and produced not only films but also TV shows, which greatly influenced Japanese society at that time. Mingei Productions is a production company independent of the film department of Theatrical Troupe Mingei, which took over the prewar proletarian theater movement. Uno Jukichi, Lee Byung-woo (Inoue Kan), a Korean director of photography living in Japan, and others were affiliated to this Productions, and produced many films related to Korea. Lee Byung-woo worked for the Geijutsu Film Company before the War and was involved with the Film Society of Koreans in Japan for the film movement that they led after the War with Kim Soon-myeong who ran Tokyo Kino Productions. After the Korean Liberation from the Japanese colonialization in 1945, Kim Soon-myeong moved to Japan to actively campaign for left-wing films by Koreans in Japan and went to North Korea for the project to return to North Korea.

　This study depicts the dynamism of the left-wing film movement in East Asia under the turbulent political situations between Japan, South Korea, and North Korea after the WWII by tracing the activities of Korean residents in Japan who were active in independent productions.