Ongaku dai-shingun

During the war, many Japanese directors of noteworthy reputations had to make propagandist films with a nasty aftertaste; films, that looked very awkward after the war, when militaristic nationalism was a taboo. Those directors include the likes of Shimizu Hiroshi, Imai Tadashi, Kinoshita Keisuke and even Kurosawa Akira. Then again, not all Japanese propaganda was militaristic and aggressive. Japan, like most countries that fought in the war, also produced light entertainment to keep up the morality of the home-front, and in this genre, a film by a little-appreciated director like Watanabe Kunio can actually compete qualitatively with the legends of cinema, whose films at the time included xenophobic manipulation of the masses.

"Ongaku dai-shingun" (Music March, 1943) is a prime example of the lighter side of Japanese war propaganda. It shows us the idyllic home-archipelago and the common people of Japan, with a purposefully light and inconsequential plot-line, that is there simply to form a bridge of sorts between the various musical numbers. I've seen plenty of Japanese musicals from the time, and this one feels most international in its style. In my home country Finland, we had many such films that mixed popular music numbers with somewhat dumb comedic bits - and not just during the war! There are some big stars appearing in the film like Takamine and Hasegawa, and through this it also resembles American war-time morality boosters like "Thank Your Lucky Stars" (1943).

"Ongaku dai-shingun" is better than much of the Japanese competition, because it mixes things up, and in so doing, keeps it interesting. There is different kinds of numbers, from instrumentals to choir singing, to duets and solos, as well as dancing. The choreography of the dance numbers is no more special than the basic physical comedy we get to witness between the songs, but the songs themselves had some nice melodies. The atmosphere is very pleasant, and there is not much propagandist elements to object even from a modern perspective. The film is nothing special, but interesting nonetheless.