"Japan Antarctic Expedition" Japan's oldest recorded movie Restored to its state at the time of release October 7, 5:49

k10012115581_201910070539_201910070547.mp4

Filming the Antarctic expedition of Shunsuke Shirase et al. In Meiji 45, the “Japan Antarctic Expedition”, known as Japan's oldest feature film, was restored to its original state in 1945. The restoration expert pointed out, “I understand well that Japanese documentary films were at a high standard.”

“Japan Antarctic Expedition”, known as Japan's oldest feature film, is a film that was shot by the first Japanese exploration of Antarctica by Shirase Shizuka Nakamura and others according to the National Film Archive. Two versions have been confirmed.

Of these, the film and subtitles that were found in private houses in Shizuoka Prefecture in 2007 were restored to their original locations based on the scripts found by the National Film Archive, and returned to their original state. Restored.

The restored movie is about 50 minutes long and contains information on penguins and seals that the expedition team encountered in Antarctica, as well as scenes where many people were greeted after returning home.

As a result of investigating newspapers in the investigation accompanying restoration, it was found that the movie was released in 1945, and it was found that the most advanced methods were used at that time, such as subtitles explaining the contents. That is.

“The interesting thing was that it was inferior to the documentary film made in foreign countries. I can clearly see that the documentary film was at a high standard. "

What have you learned anew this time?

There are other things that we found in the survey that accompanies this restoration.

Western buildings and Japanese-style buildings that appear several times in the movie have not been identified so far, but as a result of comparing with the photos at the time, etc., at the current residence of Shigenobu Otsuki on the site of Waseda University I understood that there was.

Daegu was the sponsor of the Antarctic Expedition and appeared in this movie.

According to the senior director of the National Film Archive, Mr. Oda, it is said that this is a valuable document because no other video has been confirmed.

In addition, in the scene where Shirase Nakata leaves for Antarctica, a boy is projected to split between Shirase and Oiso.

According to Dr. Oda, the fact that this child is treated specially and that there is a record that Shirase's wife and child have been sent off, he points out that the child is highly likely.

“It is a big point that this child is regarded as a special point, and I want to continue my research in the future. This survey revealed the internal structure of the Oiso residence, and the entire picture of the mansion is a video. I feel that it is extremely important from a historical point of view. "