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Actors

There was a very wide range of approaches to acting and actors in the early decades of Japanese cinema. There were stars and star vehicles - early stars tended to come from kabuki theatre, so broad, large performances were the norm from these performers. Nikkatsu studios preferred this approach - Mizoguchi went for stage sets and long takes, looking for powerful performances from his cast.

The opposite approach was seen as Shochiku: there the tendency was to tell the actors nothing, to not let them read the script or know how their scenes or actions connected with others - they were just to obey instructions. At least one director insisted that they show no emotion at all. They usually worked with actors with no previous experience. Direction tended towards lots of very short shots - perhaps because these novice actors could not be trusted to handle long ones. Donald Richie, for example, says Ozu never let the actors see the script, nor explained their reasons for anything - he just told them what to do. When actress Sugimura Haruko got exasperated by lots of takes while making Tokyo Story and asked what the motivation for her actions was, Ozu said "Money - you are getting paid for it."

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