Paper short abstract:

The arrival of sound presented film directors with daunting problems of how to integrate this foreign element into the visual. This paper will discuss the use of sound in Japanese war films, with special attention to the function of sound in amplifying the visual, compared to Western cinema.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese way of integrating of sound into the purely visual silent film took place differently than in Western cinema. While in the West the fascination of sound lay in the reproduction of music, the first Japanese sound film (Madamu to nyobô/The Neighbour’s Wife and Mine, 1931, directed by Gosho Heinosuke) already offered information on the soundtrack that was different from the visual: the noise of a record player from the neighbour's house that hinders a writer in his work. Other early sound films also show a creative use of sound, for example as a method of scene change in the film Tsuma yo bara no yao ni (Wife, Be Like a Rose, 1935, directed by Naruse Mikio).

This paper deals with the war film and its use of sound, as sound is often used as amplifier for emotions, through analysis of the films by director Tasaka Tomotaka, who set the standard for the Japanese war film with his Go-nin no sekkôhei (1938, voted best film of the year by the renowned magazine Kinema Junpô). Tasaka used almost no non-diegetic sound, instead letting the visuals affect the viewers without resorting to music to amplify the emotions. This is not to say that there is no music at all, but the soundtrack is interspersed with diegetic sound, often through the soldiers' singing, which is well embedded in the narrative, but often also through the rhythm of marching soldiers and the noise of battle. Tasaka succeeded in integrating sound into film without overpowering the visual, moreover, he used sound to control and even reduce potentially overwhelming emotions. While filmmakers use sound as an all-purpose tool for a narrative that is not entirely convincing, Tasaka went the opposite way, fully trusting the power of the visual in his films.

On the one hand, this use of sound will be analysed in relation to the visual; on the other hand, a comparison with other Japanese sound films as well as with war films in other countries will clarify Tasaka's position in the treatment of sound.