"film’s wear and tear tells a story as important as the film’s content"

January 5, 2025 2:52 PM

In the 1930s, several Japanese companies produced films made on paper (“kami firumu”) instead of celluloid. The Japanese Paper Film Project preserves the surviving movies and promotes scholarship about these films. [via]
posted by jessamyn (7 comments total)

Yeah, great find! The bluesky [via] link has many neato samples, and reading about the process on their site is like a super-concentrated mini-blast of stuff I never knew existed. Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 3:03 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

[the Bucknell team is hiring, too!]
posted by not_on_display at 3:13 PM on January 5

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but if these are on paper, were they not projected? How were they viewed originally?
posted by mittens at 3:32 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

Not a dumb question, they had specialized projectors (often hand-cranked) and the paper was just thin. This article has a few more photos and description of the films. I find, as is often the case where there's only a scholar or two who does work on a topic in English (and I don't read Japanese - if someone does the Toy Film museum may have some more info), there's a lot of sameyness to a lot of the reporting that is out there in English.
posted by jessamyn at 4:32 PM on January 5 [3 favorites]

Very cool! I've read about various early or proto-film technologies, but I'd never heard of this.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:34 PM on January 5

These had sound on 78 rpm discs! Example.
posted by Nelson at 5:25 PM on January 5

Ooh, I hadn't known about these. I have a colleague who knows a ton about Japanese film...I'm totally going to find out if he can tell me more.
posted by theatro at 5:35 PM on January 5