By 1937 the governments of Germany and Japan forged a new relationship in creating a military alliance by signing November 1936's Anti-Comintern Agreement to combat Communism. It was felt the fresh relationship required a deeper cultural understanding between the two diverse populations. To familiarize their citizens to each countries' heritage and background, they felt one avenue to take was to collaborate on a motion picture. That movie was February 1937's "The Daughter of the Samurai."
The cooperating film producers selected Germany's Arnold Fanck and Japan's Mansaku Itami to co-direct "The Daughter of the Samurai." The working relationship between the two soon turned sour despite Fanck's sensibilities when he wrote the script showing the Japanese in a positive light. His plot has exchange student Yamato Teruo (Isamu Kosugi) returning from a six-year stay in Germany to his home in Japan. He meets on the passenger liner German journalist Greta Storm (Ruth Eweler), whom he falls in love. Trouble is he's headed home to marry the daughter of his adopted family, as tradition dictates, Mitsuko (Hara Setsuko).
The first half of "The Daughter of the Samurai" contains a great deal of footage on everyday Japanese life, including the highly-advanced industrialization of its factories. Fanck, who specialized in 'mountain films' with such classics as 1926's "The Holy Mountain" and 1931's "The White Ecstasy," both with actress Leni Riefenstahl, an Adolf Hitler favorite, wrote a lengthy sequence in the second half showing Mitsuko climbing up a Japanese mountain to commit suicide. She overheard her father, Yamato Iwao (Sessue Hayakwa), telling friends her beloved Teruo wants to marry the German journalist-even though Greta's Aryan background precludes such a relationship. Yamato sits Teruo down for a man-to-man talk, telling him the great attributes Japan possesses. The harrowing pursuit of Teruo trekking up the mountains to save Mitsuko before she jumps gives Fanck the excuse to film some breathtaking footage of Mount Aso.
Mansaku Itami, who directed his first Japanese film in 1927, specialized in light-hearted samurai movies satirical in nature. He was appalled by Fanck's script, feeling it leaned more on a pro-Nazi message rather than accurately portraying Japanese life. Fanck refused to budge. A compromise was worked out giving Itami the responsibility of directing the domestic Japanese scenes, which were filmed at night inside the studio, while Fanck handled the Gerda sequences in the day at the studio as well as the outdoor mountain scenes. The two ended up editing slightly different versions of "The Daughter of the Samurai," with Japan's film retitled "The New Earth.
The part as Greta was actress Ruth Eweler's most noteworthy role in her ten-film career. She broke into movies by winning a shampoo beauty contest in 1933. Eweler endeared herself within the Nazi movie industry by her older brother's association with the SS. She died two years after the war at 31 from either pneumonia or suicide.
Sessue Hayakawa, who played the samurai father, was a popular silent movie star/producer who hopscotched between the United States, England and his home in Japan. He was stuck in France during the war, but remained active in film up to his last movie appearance in 1967. He's known for his Academy Award acting nomination performance as Colonel Saito in 1957's "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
"The Daughters of the Samurai" was the one and only collaboration between the two countries before World War Two despite the close alliance they established with the Anti-Comintern signing. Well after the war the two countries' film production companies would again jointly produce several movies.
