Marks

Obtained

ART401: APPRECIATING FAR-EASTERN CINEMA

Instructor: Dr. Ritwij Bhowmik
Winter Semester (July 2016 November 2016)

1st WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

FILM NAME: Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)

STUDENT INFORMATION
Name: Harsh Meena
Department: M.S.E

Roll No. : 14263

E-mail: harshm@iitk.ac.in

 Name : Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)

( Ninj Kami Fsen )
Director : Sadao Yamanaka
Country : Japan
Language : Japanese
Release Date : 25 August 1937

Humanity and Paper Balloons is a Japanese Jidaigeki (Period Drama)

movie. It is the last movie directed by Sadao Yamanaka before
passing away and one of his true masterpieces. It is set in 18th century
Japan in the Edo period. Instead, like the Chambara movies prevalent
at that time, which glorified the Samurai, the film deflates the myth
around them with a gentle humanity. The film describes and
highlights the differences created among individuals due to their
castes and economic status. In short, Humanity and Paper Balloons
is a Samurai movie that ends all Samurai movies.

Humanity and Paper Balloons is set in 18th century Japan in the Edoperiod. The film is set in a quarter of Tokyo where the poor men live
in tenement houses. Japan at that time had a strict caste system. On
the top was the emperor of Japan, the supreme authority. Next came
Samurais or the warriors. Then came the peasants, artisans, lastly,
the merchants, barbers, cleaners, and other people who did odd jobs.
The samurais felt superior about their position in the society and thus,
used to build a bubble of pride around them. This film hence, refuses
to glorify the Samurais, as other movies of that period were doing,
but also deflates the myth around the Samurais.
The real story derived from a play Shinza, the barber was supposed
to be revolving around Shinza an Okoma but that was just to cover
the real story so that people dont stop the production.

Name: Sadao Yamanaka

Born: November 7, 1909
Kyoto City, Kyoto, Japan
Died: September 17, 1938 (aged 28)
Manchuria, China
Occupation: Film director, screenwriter
Sadao Yamanaka, a Japanese director and screenwriter, directed
humanity and Paper Balloons. He is considered one of the primary
figures responsible for the development of Jidaigeki. Although only 3
of his works are in nearly complete form, he was considered as a
master filmmaker in native Japan. He used to experiment by blurring
the lines between different genres including comedy, historical epics
etc. Hes been characterized as a minimalist who favored elegance
and rhythm in his movies.

Humanity and Paper Balloons is a Jidaigeki movie. Jidaigeki genre

literally means Period Drama. It deals with showcasing the lives of
the samurais, farmers, craftsmen, merchants etc. Jidaigeki movies at
that time, were mostly Chanbara (a subgenre of Jidaigeki) movies,
involving a lot of sword fights and glorification of the powers and the
might of the samurais. But, this movie deviates from this subgenre
and presents a very different picture of the samurais altogether.

Humanity and Paper Balloons starts with the suicide of a penurious

Ronin Samurai. The movie portrays another Ronin Samurai, Unno
Matajuro, who is equally poor and a clever barber, Shinza. The
samurai, having pawned his sword, is in search of a job but to no avail
while his wife sells Paper balloons for a living. The barber, on the other
hand, is constantly harassed by the local yakuza as he runs a
gambling joint in their territory. Out of desperation, he helps the
barber in kidnapping a rich merchants daughter. When his wife came
to know about this, she murdered him in his sleep and then committed
suicide, closing the films narrative circle.

Ignorance of the poor

The poor people belonging to the lower caste preferred to live in their
own, ignoring all the people with higher social status around them. In
the movie, when the Ronin samurai committed suicide, instead of
mourning his death, they are more concerned about the fact that they
arent allowed to go into the market to sell their products. Their
feelings were like he has wasted a fine day of trade for them. There
was no feeling of humanity in them.
The Pitiful Samurai

Suicide was not a crime in Japan but people still questioned the way
of suicide by the poor samurai as they are supposed to slit their belly
publically. He hanged himself which was considered disgraceful by the
people because he was a samurai which is an upper caste.
Economic difference

The economic status of a person played a very important role in

determining the status of a person in the society. In the picture, the
barber is mending the footwear of the landlord, giving him respect,
while the landlord watches. The landlord and the barber both belong
to the same social class, but the landlord, being economically better,
enjoyed a much higher position than the barber.
Insensitive authorities

It is Japanese tradition that after death, called wake (a little party) is

organized as mourning. In the movie, the samurai committed suicide
and hence, Shinza asked the landlord for 5 bottles of sake (a Japanese
drink) for conducting the wake. To this, the landlord initially refused
showing his insensitivity towards the matter and also that he has no
compassion for his tenants.
Onset of Christianity

Japan at that time was religiously dominated by either Buddhism or

Shintoism. But, due to the foreign trade relations, the Europeans
brought in Christianity in Japan. The same fact is portrayed in the
dialogue spoken by Shinzas neighbor which refers to Jesus Christ.
This shows the influence of Christianity on the lower, economically
weaker classes which were soft targets for the missionaries.

Ninjo (humanity)

The poor community helped each other in times of need. This was
why the word Ninjo was used in the title of the movie. Ninjo means
human feeling that complements and opposes the value of giri
(social obligation). In the movie too, Shinza asked the landlord for
organizing the wake, not for mourning the death of the samurai, but
to hold a party so that his community can feel rejuvenated. Nearing
the end of the wake, they all feel the same and even state their
feelings that such kind of parties should happen much more often.
They even tell what they feel to the landlord in a drunken state.
Different lifestyles

The landlord is a rich person. When he comes to the wake, the people
offer him fish to eat. But, he refuses to eat the fish as it was sliced

thin and he didnt like it. Also, the clothes of the landlord and the
people differ significantly. This shows the lifestyle of the rich is very
different from the poor community living in the ghettos.
Helpless Samurai

The wife of Unno Matajuro, Samurai makes paper balloons for a living
but due the laws of the society the Samurai is not allowed to any kind
of household work. They are poor but are bound to the system.
Same caste different status

In the picture, we can see that Mr. Unno walking behind Mr. Mori even
though they belonged to the same caste. When Unno requests Mori
for help he rudely declines and ignores him. The movie showed us

that wealth is power and how can two people from same caste lived
different lives.
Rich Samurai and Respect

The Samurai in the picture is Mr. Mori, a rich and an influential

samurai. When he visits the pawn shop, the owner and the clerk bend
down towards him to give him respect. The owner also wants his
daughter to marry a samurai to upgrade their caste by dodging the
customs and is seeking the help of Mr. Mori for this matter.
The reality of a poor Samurai

In the Chambara movies prevalent at that time, all the samurais were
shown as able fighters, taking down the whole enemy just by
themselves. But in this scene, Unno is shown to be beaten up by petty
men of the Yakuza Yatagoro. Sadao Yamanaka thus brings out the

reality of the samurais who were economically and physically weak at

that time.
Powerful Yakuza

The scene shows the Yakuza Yatagoro kicking Shinza while his men
look on. Yatagoro was a mafia of the region and organised gambling
parties, which was illegal at that time. He was threatening Shinza as
he too organised gambling parties in what Yatagoro considered his
territory. In addition, he used to send his men to beat somebody on
the request of the pawnshop owner, thus instilling a fear in the heart
of the common people.
A party for the poor

Shinza kept on organizing gambling parties for poor people even

though he was threatened by the mafia. Shinza was kind hearted
person who cared about the people and wanted to bring a little joy in
the life of those miserable people. At the gambling table, all were
equal.
Gender Inequality

Women in Japan were not treated as equal to men. They didnt take
part in any decision making and were merely show-pieces as they
have been seen wearing ornamental dresses right from the beginning.
Also, they couldnt control the activities of their spouses and they
complained about them only amongst themselves. In the scene,
Shinza has kidnapped the merchants daughter and the greedy
landlord is planning to get a huge ransom from the pawn shop owner.
Pride is greater than money

In the entire movie, we saw Yatagoro and his men humiliating and
threatening Shinza. But in the above scene, Shinza finally humiliates
yatagoro in front of everyone. He didnt kidnapped the girl for money,
he wanted to get his pride back. The movie showed us that no matter
how poor and low class Shinza was, he was not afraid to get his pride
back even though it could cost him his life.
Facing death like a Samurai

The scene shows Shinza facing death bravely and accepting his fate.
He made Yatagoro lose his face (respect and fear) in the public.
Hence, Yatagoro is furious and he brought Shinza to kill him, a
situation which Shinza gauged beforehand. Hence, Sadao Yamanaka
shows that a person need to be born a samurai to behave like one,
as Shinza was much closer in habits to a samurai than Mr. Unno.

End of the misery

Mr. Unno the poor Samurai, till this point of the scene had lied to his
wife, helped in the kidnapping of the girl and drank with low class
people. He did all the things that were a disgrace to a Samurai. His
wife also heard the neighbors talking about him and disrespecting
him. Finally, she decided to end their misery by killing both of them.
This shows the the burden of society can even make an almighty
Samurai loose his life. Sadao Yamanaka showed the reality of the
Japanese people giving them what they need to see rather than what
they want to see.

Humanity and Paper Balloons is a great movie by Sadao Yamanaka.

Although the movie is virtually void of plot, it is fascinatingly
constructed. It strays away from the movies made at that time and
goes against the political setup. It presents a picture of feudal Japan
as an unjust class society. There is a subtle gender difference
present in the movie as well. The movie is a bitter critique of
traditional values by exposing the greed and hypocrisy of the
privileged, while the poor are shown as brimming with life and
energy despite all their tribulations

Bhowmik, Ritwij. "Japan Segment: Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)."

Appreciating Far-Eastern Cinema. IIT Kanpur. Kanpur. May 2016. Lecture.
- -Sadao Yamanaka. Humanity & Paper Balloons(1937)
YouTube. Web. 29 August 2016.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B_bP9ViNrU>

Brian Whitener. "HUMANITY AND PAPER BALLOONS (NINJO KAMI FUSEN) (1937)."
Rotten Tomatoes. Web. 29 August 2016.
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/humanity-and-paper-balloons-ninjo-kami-fusen/>

Jason Marshall. Best Pictures of 1937 (#5) Humanity and Paper Balloons.
MoviesOverMatter. Web. 29 August 2016.
<https://moviesovermatter.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/best-pictures-of-1937-5-humanityand-paper-balloons/>

Wikipedia. Humanity and Paper Balloons

Wikipedia. Web. 29 August 2016.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanity_and_Paper_Balloons>