Manchukuo Film Association
| Company type | State-owned enterprise |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film production and distribution |
| Founded | August 14, 1937 |
| Founder | Kwantung Army |
| Defunct | 1946 |
| Headquarters | Changchun , Manchukuo |
Area served | Japanese-occupied East Asia, Axis nations |
Key people | Masahiko Amakasu, Negishi Kan'ichi |
| Products | Films (political cinema, drama, propaganda, documentaries) |
Number of employees | 1,800 (1944) |
or () was a film studio operated by the Empire of Japan in Manchukuo throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Following the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the Soviet Red Army handed over the assets of Man'ei to Chinese communist forces, which laid the foundation for the Chinese Communist Party’s inaugural fully functional film production company, the Northeastern Film Studio.
Background
Established in 1937 by the Kwantung Army within occupied northeast China, Man'ei held control over film creation, distribution, and international export within Manchukuo. Backed by significant funding, the studio specialized in producing political cinema, dramatic works, propaganda pieces, and documentaries. Its operations extended throughout Japanese-occupied East Asia, with films distributed to Axis nations as part of an ambition to transform Manchukuo into a "Dream Land of Film Making." The company collaborated closely with Japanese-controlled studios and distribution channels. In 1939, Man'ei constructed a state-of-the-art facility in Changchun, outfitted with modern technology; it also ran film academies between 1937 and 1944, graduating hundreds of students. The workforce expanded from 900 employees in 1940 to 1,800 by 1944.
History
Man'ei was founded on August 14, 1937, as a , formed through a partnership between the Manchukuo government and the South Manchurian Railway Company. Its initial production studios operated out of a repurposed wool factory, while administrative offices were located in the former Kitsurin Architectural Institute in Jilin. Unlike Japanese film enterprises in Taiwan and Korea, Man'ei was established from the outset as a Japanese-managed Chinese studio. It originated from the Southern Manchurian Railway's Photographic Division, which initially produced industrial and educational films targeting Japanese viewers. Promotional claims touted Man'ei as possessing Asia’s most advanced film production facilities at that time. Negishi Kan'ichi from Nikkatsu was brought in to supervise feature film projects.
In 1939, Nobusuke Kishi appointed Masahiko Amakasu, who headed Manchukuo's Ministry of Civil Affairs, to replace Negishi. Leveraging his outsider reputation and notoriety, Amakasu preserved Man'ei’s autonomy from Japan’s domestic film industry. Having visited Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1936, he aimed to restructure Man'ei’s production framework based on UFA’s model to rival Hollywood and Japanese studios. To achieve this, he recruited personnel from Towa Company to obtain advanced German camera equipment and filmmaking techniques. Amakasu also hosted notable Japanese cultural figures such as conductor Takashi Asahina. Despite his right-wing stance, he employed numerous left-wing and Communist sympathizers who had been expelled from Japan’s film sector.
Amakasu was instrumental in launching the career of actress and singer Yoshiko Yamaguchi, who gained popularity among Chinese audiences due to her fluent Mandarin. Following the Pacific War, she transitioned to Hollywood under the name Shirley Yamaguchi.
Man'ei set itself apart by primarily catering to audiences within Manchuria rather than focusing on Japanese viewers. In 1942, Amakasu highlighted that films should first appeal to Manchurian audiences before expanding their reach to Japan.
After Japan’s capitulation in August 1945, control of Man'ei was transferred by the Soviet Red Army to Chinese communist authorities. The studio was relocated to Hegang and reestablished as the Northeast Film Studio, marking the CCP’s first full-scale film production facility. Under director Yuan Muzhi and party secretary Chen Bo'er, it resumed operations in early 1947 producing newsreels, documentaries, narrative films, educational content for children, and animated works.
Films and publications
During its prime, Man'ei stood as Asia's most extensive and technologically sophisticated film studio, creating motion pictures for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The studio prioritized modernization in both its instructional and entertainment productions. Although the majority of Man'ei's films were destroyed by Japanese forces, a portion was salvaged by the American military following Japan's 1945 surrender and is currently preserved within the National Archive and Records Administration.
A 1939 evaluation revealed that educated audiences in Manchuria found Man'ei's films to be uninspiring and lacking realism. Consequently, the studio shifted its focus toward producing higher-caliber dramatic works while continuing to generate a substantial volume of educational content. Subsequently, Man'ei implemented a tactic that combined relatable everyday scenarios with imperial messaging to fulfill propagandistic objectives.
From December 1937 until September 1940, Man'ei issued a film periodical titled Manshū eiga (満州映画). This publication included serialized adaptations of films, entertainment updates, and critical reviews of cinema, despite frequent domestic academic critiques regarding the studio’s production standards. Amakasu defended this strategy by explaining that the films were aimed at unrefined audiences who required straightforward explanations.
Legacy
Man’ei remains a contentious subject within the history of Cinema of China due to its links with pro-Japanese propaganda efforts.
Approximately fifty percent of Man'ei's film archive was seized by Soviet forces after World War II. In May 1995, Japan reacquired these films and compiled them into 30 episodes, which were sold domestically for 300,000 yen. The Chinese government disputed this action, claiming copyright over former Manchukuo productions and denouncing their reproduction without authorization. Japan consented to return certain works as restitution. Presently, some of these films are housed in China’s National Film Archives, while others remain at Changchun Film Studio.
See also
Sources
- ↑ Inuhiko, Yomota. What Is Japanese Cinema? A History, Ed. Philip Kaffen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
- ↑ Li, Jie. “A National Cinema for a Puppet State: The Manchurian Motion Picture Association.” In Oxford Handbook Online, edited by Carlos Rojas, 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
- ↑ Nornes, Markus, and Fukushima Yukio. The Japan/Ameriaca Film Wars: World War II Propaganda and Its Cultural Contexts. Langhorne, PA: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994.
- ↑ Zhang, Yangjin. Chinese National Cinema. London: Routledge, 2004.
- ↑ Ella Shohat, and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism : Multiculturalism and the Media. Vol. Second edition, Routledge, 2014.
- ↑ Loomba, A. (2015). Colonialism/Postcolonialism (3rd ed.). Routledge.
- Chinese film studios
- Japanese film studios
- Companies in Manchukuo
- Defunct companies of China
- Defunct companies of Japan
- Changchun Film Studio
- 1937 establishments in China
- 1937 establishments in Japan
- 1937 establishments in the Japanese colonial empire
- Mass media companies established in 1937
- Mass media companies disestablished in 1946
- Imperial Japanese Army
- State-owned film companies