Shifting Myths of the Silver Screen--Light and Shadow of Actresses in 1971

Shifting Myths of the Silver Screen--Light and Shadow of Actresses in 1971

The year 1971 was a turning point in the Japanese entertainment industry. The major movie companies (Toho, Shochiku, Nikkatsu, Daiei, etc.) that had supported the film industry from the postwar period through the 1960s faced the rapid rise of television, and attendance declined year by year. The movie industry was no longer the "king of entertainment for the common people.

Actresses who had once been the "ideal female image" on the silver screen were gradually being asked to enter TV dramas and variety shows. Actresses like Ineko Arima and Keiko Kishi, who had expanded their careers not only to the movies but also to the stage and television, had to extend their "acting careers" with this flexibility.

This article focuses on the "double life" of these actresses. The conflict between the screen portrayal of pure love and chaste wives and the real-life depictions of marriage, divorce, traveling to and from foreign countries, and press exaggeration - this is not mere gossip, but a cultural question about what the times demanded of the actresses. It was not mere gossip, but a cultural question about what the times demanded of actresses.

Keiko Kishi's decision to continue acting in Japan while living in Paris at the time embodied a new image of women: international marriage, female independence, and expression that transcended national borders, a freedom that was criticized in conservative Japanese society. However, she also played a classic female role in films such as "Yukiguni," and was a symbolic figure standing "in between" tradition and innovation.

Furthermore, "orthodox actresses" such as Inako Arima felt pressure to maintain the values of purity and beauty, but they also challenged new artistic expression on stage and elsewhere. The transition from the "mass art" of film to "theater," which demanded more internal and in-depth acting, was another characteristic of this period.

In addition, in the early 1970s, Japan was in the midst of pollution problems, the end of the student movement, and the shaking up of economic growth, and the values of young people were diversifying. Against this backdrop, it is true that the image of actresses pushed up by the conventional star system was no longer necessarily accepted by younger audiences. The demand for more "life-size" and "self-aware" women was growing, and a ground was being formed for the emergence of individualists such as Kaori Momoi and Ki-Kirin Kiki.