Saturday, May 21, 2011

A Kiss from Bernard Shaw and . . .

. . . thanks to ibergus: (Rare!) Various Scenes with George Bernard Shaw (1931 Fox Movietone Newsreel).

Daiei planned the first kiss scene in any Japanese film, to be included in Yasuki Chiba's A Certain Night's Kiss (Aru Yo no Seppun), but, though Chiba was considered a pioneer in frank love stories and hence was chosen for this possibly dangerous assignment, he lost his nerve at the last minute and shot the scene so that the kiss was obscured by an open umbrella. At the same time Shochiku was rushing to complete Yasushi Sasaki's Twenty-Year-Old Youth (Hatachi no Seishun). Its kiss was considerably more visible and since both films opened on the same day, May 23, 1946, the two companies had to share the honors. — Anderson and Richie, The Japanese Film, 1960, p. 176.

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