When Cinema Was King (娯楽の王様, 2017) traces the living memories of the ‘golden age’ of film culture in postwar Japan. This short documentary film explores the role of cinema in the everyday lives of the generation that grew up under occupation (1945-1952), investigating the impact of censored cinema on the political views of this now-elderly generation.
The film is part of an on-going initiative using filmmaking and digital recordings to research popular engagement with Japanese visual cultures.