Benshi, the (Almost) Lost Art of Film Narration

A hundred years ago, silent movies in America included intertitle cards to help the audience keep up with what was going on. In Japan, movies had live narrators that stood at the side of the stage and described the action and dialogue in real time. These performers were called benshi, and they were more than just narrators. Some become quite famous for bringing movies to life with their clear and emotional voices. The art of benshi was a direct descendant of narration that Japane had been using for kabuki theater and puppet shows for hundreds of years. Benshi didn't always narrate a film as it was intended, and sometimes embellished or downright changed the story to please the audience. When sound came to cinema, most professional benshi were out of a job, but the best continued as translators of foreign films. Subtitles spelled the end of the golden age of benshi. But there are still practitioners who learned from the best and keep the art of benshi alive in theaters that show the few remaining Japanese silent film classics. Read the story of benshi at Atlas Obscura.  

The image above is from the 1926 art film A Page of Madness, which figures heavily in the article. You can see the full movie at YouTube. 

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)