An Inn in Tokyo – directed by Yasujirō Ozu (1935)
Silent films were still being produced in Japan well into the 1930s. Japan’s first feature-length talkie was Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato (1930)
Notable talkies of 30s include: Mikio Naruse’s Wife, Be Like A Rose!, Yasujirō Ozu’s An Inn in Tokyo, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sisters of the Gion, Osaka Elegy and The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, and Sadao Yamanaka’s Humanity and Paper Balloons.
In 1939, the Japanese Film Law gave the state expanded authority over the film industry and the government produced propaganda films and documentaries.