Photo Chemical Laboratory

Japanese: Photo Chemical Laboratory（英語表記）PhotoChemicalLaboratory

...Toho's founding coincided with the development of Japanese talkie films. In 1931, Photo Chemical Laboratory (PCL), established in Kinuta, Tokyo, created a separate company called Kokusan Talkie Co. and built a talkie studio. In 1932, it became a joint-stock company, built a new studio in the same Kinuta, and began providing talkie facilities. In 1933, it also began film production at a separate company, the PCL Film Production Company. Meanwhile, JO Studio, established in 1932, opened a talkie studio in Uzumasa Musashinoyashiro, Kyoto, and began film production at a separate company, Uzumasa Sound Productions. ...

From Mori Iwao

...He established the "Friday Club" in the Planning Department and wrote the screenplay for films such as La Traviata (1927), which he himself called "an old woman's tragedy, though in a new disguise," and provided plans and screenplays to directors such as Murata Minoru, Mizoguchi Kenji, Abe Yutaka, Tasaka Tomotaka, and Uchida Tomu, breathing new life into Nikkatsu, which was then in a deep slump. He then joined PCL (short for Photo-Chemical Laboratory), which was established in 1932 with the aim of developing talkie technology, and in 1933, when the production-only PCL Film Productions was founded, he became director of the production department, and held a succession of important positions as head of production as PCL evolved into Toho. Many of the films planned and produced during the PCL era were operettas and silly stand-up comedy films that, although ambitious in intent, were out of tune with the Japanese lifestyle and sentiment, so much so that PCL was even said to be an abbreviation for "pork cutlet fried in lard." However, the company made a great contribution organizationally.

*Some of the terms mentioned in "Photo Chemical Laboratory" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…東宝成立は日本のトーキー映画の歩みとともにある。31年，東京砧（きぬた）に設立された写真化学研究所Photo Chemical Laboratory(略称PCL)は，国産トーキー社という別会社をつくってトーキー･スタジオを建設，32年，株式会社となって，同じ砧に新スタジオを建て，トーキー施設提供を始め，33年には別会社のPCL映画製作所で映画製作にもとりかかった。一方，1932年に設立されたJOスタジオが，京都太秦蟲の社にトーキー･スタジオを開設，別会社の太秦発声で映画製作を始めた。…

【森岩雄】より

…企画本部に〈金曜会〉を設け，みずからも〈新しくは装えど古き女の悲劇〉と銘うった《椿姫》(1927)などのシナリオを書いて，村田実，溝口健二，阿部豊，田坂具隆，内田吐夢らの監督たちに企画やシナリオを提供し，当時，沈滞の色が濃かった日活に生気をあたえた。　その後，トーキー技術の開発を目的として1932年に発足したPCL(写真化学研究所Photo‐Chemical Laboratoryの略称)に入り，33年に製作専門のPCL映画製作所が創立されたとき取締役製作部長となり，PCLが東宝に発展して変遷する間，製作面の責任者として要職を歴任する。PCL時代の企画･製作作品には，意図は野心的でも日本の生活様式と生活感情にそぐわないオペレッタ映画や，ふざけた漫才映画なども多く，PCLとは〈ポーク･カツレツ･ラード揚げ〉の略であると評されたほどであったが，組織的な面では大きな功績を残した。…

※「Photo Chemical Laboratory」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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