Title

: Ninjo Kami Fusen

(Humanity and Paper Balloons)

Director

: Sadao Yamanaka

Release Date

: August, 1937

Country

: Japan

Language

: Japanese

Ninjo Kami Fusen (Humanity and Paper Balloons) is Jidaigeki film

directed by Sadao Yamanaka in 1937. The film is based on the 1873
Mokuami play Kamiyi Shinza (Shinza the barber). Unlike any other
film, this film shows the narrow points of the Japanese society.

The story is set in the 18th Century, at that time Samurai people
belonged to the upper cast, and they were considered as the noble
people. But this film refused to glorify Samurai bravery and patriotism,
this film instead deflates the myth around them with a gentle humanity.

This movie takes us back in the 18th century of medieval Japan where class division was
followed by the people. There were four main classes: Samurai, Farmers, Artisans and
Merchants. These people by any mean were to serve the royal class people including the
king, shogun and royal family. Samurai were placed at the top of the society. They were the
part of the army guided by Daimyos. They were elite warriors for the kingdom. A Samurai
tag for any Japanese family was considered to bring great respect to the family. The farmers
were superior to other caste systems except the Samurai. The reason for that they work in
farming fields for producing Japans food on which other castes and classes depend upon.
The third were artisans, their work was with metal and produce products for the Japanese
people needs. Merchants were fourth in caste system. They were shopkeepers and travelling
traders. They were considered meanest caste since they did not manufacture any products.
This class division was not based on wealth but they were ordered on the basis of
work and responsibility in the society. This class division was based on birth e.g. son of a
samurai will be known as samurai.

This Japanese film was directed by Sadao Yamanaka. He was born on November 9, 1909;
in Kyoto City, Japan. Yamanaka began his Career in the Japanese film industry at the age
of 20 years as a writer and assistant director for the Makino company. He was also a great
screen writer. He has done most of his work in Kyoto City, Japan. It was his last film, in
this film he worked with Toho Productions and Zenshin-za theatre troupe. He was one of
the primary figure in the development of Jidaigeki. Through his movies he criticises the
Japanese Government. Therefore, Yamanaka was drafted into the imperial Japanese army
on the same day that the Humanity and paper balloons premiered. He died on September
17, 1938 in a field hospital in then Japanese ruled Manchukuo, known today as Manchuria.

Jidaigeki is a popular film genre of Japanese films, it means Period Drama, and sometime
it also refers to Cloak and Dagger Drama. Jidaigeki show the lives of the samurai, farmers,
craftsmen and merchants of their time. They are most often set during the Edo period of
Japanese history. These were made to show Japanese tradition and history and to make
propaganda for their strong army and Government. It was admired and adopted by many
directors and screen play writers, of the early 20th century. Jidaigeki has a subgenre named
as Chanbara which means sword fight.
Some films based on jidaigeki genre are:
1. Nao-zamurai
2. Bushido, Samurai Saga
3. Samurai Hustle

The story opens in an Edo slum community where impoverished samurai live from
hand to mouth among equally poor people of lower classes. One such ronin (master less
samurai), Matajuro Unno spends his day looking for work. His wife was putting her great
effort to run their family. Shinza, who was a barber makes his efforts to achieve real respect
in society. One rainy night Shinza impulsively abducts the daughter of a wealthy merchant,
hiding her at Mr. Unno home. Shinza and Matajuros kidnapping scheme finally backfires
and the ronins wife kills him in his sleep and subsequently commits suicide. By this the
film ends.

1. Funeral Celebration
At that time, the economic condition
of poor people was very bad. Their
life was lingered. They dont have
any time besides earning. In the film
director has shown this thing. In the
beginning after, the suicide of an old
samurai the police stopped everyone
from going to work. So the people
were left with nothing except celebrating the funeral ceremony. They were so busy
in their own life that they dont care for someones death.

2. Economic Class Division

In the film there is a barrier of
money among the people. In this
scene Shinza is repair the sandal of
the landlord and the landlord is
standing on the roadside to avoid
any dirt on his foot, although both
belong to the same caste but there is
an economic difference between
them. The landlord is a rich person
and according to their culture he has the right to order Shinza to repair his sandal.
On the hand, Shinza is willingly repairing his sandals this depicts humanity of
Shinza.

3. The Opposite Character

Shainza with Yataguro men

Usually the jidaigeki films glorify the

samurai bravery and honesty. But in this
film the ronin samurai Mr. Unno has
opposite character. He is not brave, he is
beaten up by Yataguro (a local gangster)
men outside the merchants house. Also
Samurai people dont lie but here Mr.
Unno lies to his wife that Mr. Mori will meet him for his job. On the other hand,
Shinza is not a coward person. While Yataguro men were beating Unno, Shinza
protected him from those men, risking his own life. Because Yataguro men were also
looking for Shinza, because he runs gambling without the authentication of
Yataguro.
From this thing Sadao Yamanaka tells us that it is not necessary that one
cannot become a brave samurai by his birth. And a person who belongs to lower
class can also be brave. Same thing can be applied to the king, it is not necessary that
a person who is born in royal family is capable of becoming a king.

4. Class Division

Shinza and Mr. Unno

Mr. Mori and Mr. Unno

The lower class people or the poor feels happy when they get a chance to talk to the
higher class people in the first scene Shinza is sitting with Unno, Shinza is very
happy by this. He thinks that he is equivalent to a samurai (brave and powerful).
In the second picture Unno is telling Mori about him in order to get a job from
him. Both of them are samurai but there is an economic division between them. Mori
is a rich samurai official while Unno is a poor ronin samurai.
5. Gender Biased Society

Shinza at pawn shop

Shinza and landlord

In the Japanese society women were considered as the pride of a family and they
were treated as if they were show piece items. In the first picture Shinza is saying to

Okuma that You think it grows on trees, dont you? by this he means that women
dont know anything about the outside world, how men earn the money for their
family. Women dont know the value of money.
In the second scene the landlord is convincing Shinza to show Okuma to him.
Landlord is saying to Shinza that Shes important! Dont let a mouse bite her nose.
By this the landlord means that Shinza should not do any harm to Okuma, not
because he is worried about Okuma, but he thinks that if Okuma is hurt than he would
get less money from the merchant in her exchange. Just like any damaged show piece
is sold at low price. These things shows that the society was gender biased.

6. Humble Nature of Shinza

Shinza and Mr. Unno

In the film, Shinza was showing humanity and mercy towards the people in the society
whether they are higher class or lower class. He was not biased with any class people. He
was also honest, he gave the share of money to Mr. Unno that he got from merchant in
exchange of Okuma. And with his share, Shinza offered drinks to his people. He distributed
the money, which he got from Yataguro. This is one of the quality that turns him into the
hero of the film.

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7. Corrupted People
The government official are corrupted. This can be easily judged by the gambling
activities. At that time in Japan, gambling was prohibited, but Yataguro was
organizing gambling because he had bribed the police officers. Therefore no
policemen was interfering in Yataguros region. And Shinza was taking advantage
of this thing and he was also organizing gambling in his house, risking his life.

8. Self-respect of Shinza

Shinza beaten by Yataguro

Shinza at pawn shop

Shinza was very different from people of his class. For him self-respect was
everything. In the first scene it has been shown that, he went to the pawn shop to owe
some money on his hairdressing tools but the clerk refused to owe any money to him.
Then owners daughter ask the clerk to give him the required money but Shinza
refused to take it because he didnt wanted anything on someones recommendation.
In the second scene Yataguro is torturing Shinza for organizing gambling
without his authentication. This behavior of Yataguro hurted Shinzas self-respect
and Shinza revenged it by kidnapping merchants daughter, and insulting Yataguro
by saying that he should shove his head like a monk.

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9. Otakis Thinking

Samurai womens main duty was maintaining the household and care for children.
But this doesnt mean that samurai women were powerless. The woman in the scene
is Otaki, Mr. Unnos wife. She not only take care of her house, but also earns for her
family by making paper balloons. Unno was lying to her from the beginning about
his meeting with Mori. When Otaki went to her sisters house, Unno helped Shinza
in hiding Okuma. When Otaki returns she heard about this incident from neighboring
women. They were saying that how a samurai can kidnap a woman.
She cant bear this pain and at the same night she killed her husband and
herself with a knife. So that at least they may die like samurai.

10. Directors View

In this film the director is simple in its presentation at first but with an intricate and
complex narration describes every scene with clarity,
for example the film starts with fine weather, sunshine but due to the suicide of an
old man, people are forced to stay at their homes and not to go to their job. We can
conclude from this that the poor people are somehow forced to remain poor.

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In another scene the director uses rain to show that there is something which
is not good is about to happen and at in that scene Okuma is kidnapped by Shinza.
Director had a hidden message in this scene. The rain can be controlled by the god
and Japanese people consider their king as their god. This implies that the king is not
controlling the rain or he is not controlling the evil that is about to happen.

Shinza and Yataguro at Enmado Bridge

The director used night scene to show that something bad is going on, for
instance when Yataguro called Shinza at Enmado Bridge it was the night time.
Tenements of ancient Edo and the shots of the open sky seems to symbolize
the dreams of a better fortune for the two main protagonist: Shinza and Mr. Unno.

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11. Camera Angle

Most of the time whenever a new scene starts in this film, there is a symmetry in the scene,
as shown in the above two pictures. These symmetry makes scene more clear and audience
do not get distract by any means. Unmoving camera matches well with the theme of lack of
social mobility.

12. The Final Message

The final is message is in this image
i.e. one of the paper balloons that
Unnos wife makes in her spare time
floating in the gutter. The paper
balloon is a traditional Japanese toy
that is delightful to play with, but
whose usefulness is fleeting at they
tear easily or are destroyed by
contact with water or fire. In the context of the film, this final image of the paper balloon
signifyies the fragility of human existence.

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Humanity and Paper Balloons is a fascinating movie that not only reframes the feudal period
in which it is set to present a harsh critique of the social and political conditions of the time
it was made, but also demonstrates just how tight, coherent, and entertaining films from this
period actually were. This film shows the dark side of Japanese culture. It is one of few
jidaigeki movie that didnt glorify samurai. Director has compared humanity with paper
balloons. In the end it is shown that a paper balloon is floating in gutter, this implies that
paper balloon dont have destination and it can be easily destroyed by contact with water or
fire, like this humanity is also getting destroyed in the society. This film also shows the fight
of lower class person, Shinza against the discrimination done by upper class and rich people.
Shinza shows his humanity, determination and courage, and in the he emerges as the hero
of the film.

References:
Bhowmik, Ritwij. Japan Segment: Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937).
Appreciating Far- Eastern Cinema. IIT Kanpur. Kanpur. May 2016. Lecture.

Humanity And Paper Balloons. Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation.

Web. 3 June 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanity_and_Paper_Balloons

Edo Society. Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation.

Web. 3 June 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_society

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