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The Benshi Track: Mizoguchi Kenji's The Downfall of Osen and the Sound Transition
- Cinema Journal
- University of Texas Press
- Volume 50, Number 3, Spring 2011
- pp. 1-25
- 10.1353/cj.2011.0025
- Article
- Additional Information
Drawing on production memos, film magazines, and censorship records, this essay locates the formative moment of Mizoguchi's style within the sound transition. The Downfall of Osen, with the benshi (film lecturer) narration recorded on its soundtrack, weaved the transformation of exhibition practice and the emergent "talkie" aesthetics into its textuality.