Tipsy Life

The film generally regarded as Japan’s first true musical was also the first film made entirely in-house by the pioneering studio P.C.L., a company founded specifically to take advantage of emergent sound technology. P.C.L. worked in collaboration with a brewer’s firm, Dai Nihon Biru, who met the production costs of the film in full, and whose products are featured in the film in an example of the sophisticated and modern merchandising typical of the studio’s early work. The film is partially set in a beer hall, and its story concerns a beer seller at a train station and her relationship with a music student trying to create a hit song. Director Sotoji Kimura was to become a company stalwart, making such films as Ino and Mon, while actress Sachiko Chiba would emerge the studio’s first real star, appearing in such films as Wife Be Like a Rose.

Country:

Japan

Genre:

Music

Duration:

77 minutes

Year:

1933

Director:

Sotoji Kimura

Cast:
Musei Tokugawa

Dekao Yokoo

Heihachirō Ōkawa

Hisao Yoshitani

Kamatari Fujiwara

Crew:
Sotoji Kimura

Director

Mikiya Tachibana

Editor

Hiroshi Suzuki

Director of Photography

Keiji Matsuzaki

Screenplay

Tsunaji Ichikawa

Sound Recordist