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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how Western film adaptations of Camille were received in Japan through the “Shinpa mode.” Focusing on melodrama and female stardom, it shows how modern girl imagery emerged through tensions between Western modernity and persistent Shinpa emotional frameworks.

Paper long abstract

This paper reconsiders the reception of Western literary films in Japan from the Taishō period to the early Shōwa era through the concept of the “Shinpa mode,” focusing on cinematic adaptations of La Dame aux Camélias (Camille). While previous film historiography has emphasized Western literary cinema as a catalyst for the modernization and Westernization of Japanese cinema, this paper argues that reception practices were equally shaped by a persistent emotional and narrative framework rooted in premodern theatrical traditions.

By examining French, Italian, and American film adaptations of Camille—including the French version starring Sarah Bernhardt (1912), the Italian diva film featuring Francesca Bertini (1915), and the American production starring Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino (1921)—this study shows how Japanese critics and audiences actively interpreted these Western melodramas through the lens of giri (social obligation) and ninjō (human emotion). Rather than perceiving these films as purely Western or modern, reviewers frequently compared the actresses’ exaggerated bodily expressions to the performance style of onnagata actors in Shinpa theater, thereby locating “Shinpa-like” qualities within Western cinema itself.

Japanese film adaptations further crystallized this interpretive framework. The 1915 Nikkatsu adaptation cast the celebrated onnagata actor Tachibana Teijirō as the heroine, translating Western melodrama into Japanese spaces and Shinpa performance codes. In the early Shōwa period, as actresses replaced onnagata, attempts were made to align Camille with the image of the modern woman. The Nikkatsu version planned for Okada Yoshiko, later replaced by Natsukawa Shizue, exposed tensions between the modern girl’s outward appearance and the inner logic of the Shinpa heroine. By contrast, the 1932 Shōchiku adaptation starring Kurishima Sumiko reaffirmed a self-sacrificing Shinpa-style heroine, privileging moral obligation over romantic fulfillment.

Through these cases, this paper challenges one-directional models of Western influence and highlights a bidirectional process of cultural negotiation. The figure of the modern girl in Japanese cinema emerged not simply as a symbol of modernity, but through ongoing friction with deeply rooted Shinpa emotional modes that continued to shape gendered representation.