exploring the arcade in 野良犬 (1949) aka Nora inu (Stray Dog)

I had posted screen shots from this movie in the post exploring pachinko in Japanese cinema... part 1 but I feel it is such an important scene that it deserves it's own post.  I have also upgraded my source, using a proper bluray release for the screencaps.

野良犬 (1949) aka Nora inu (Stray Dog)

I am fairly confident I have identified the pinball machines we see here.  I have combed through all visual documentation of pinball up to 1949 and the cabinet matches no known game from USA or Germany or UK.

I believe this is 欧米式マーブル電装野球遊技器 (Western-style marble electric baseball game machine) by 鈴富 (Suzutomi).

From Kazuo Sugiyama's book Corinthian, here is an advertisement for it:

The dual lines with breaks for a large circle match perfectly to what we see in Stray Dog. We have no way of knowing for sure, perhaps photographs from filming could include them.

I will be adding the shooting gallery to the eremeka database. I made this composite images with two of the best angles:

unknown shooting gallery [seen in 野良犬]

Here are full stills of the gallery, including a later shot from behind the gallery:

 

This next realization is part of what prodded me to put this whole post together.

I believe director Akira Kurosawa deliberately rigged a pachinko machine to make the scene more powerful.

Our protagonist arrives at the shooting gallery, has conflict with the woman, and she steps backwards against the pachinko machines.

Notice how when we cut to this scene, before the woman enters the frame, the lever of the pachinko machine on the right is down.  There is a ball placed in the shooter lane. This is only visible for a part of a second, so you wouldn't consciously register it.

Zooming in:

ball is inserted and ready to be shot, shooter handle is held down somehow, probably from behind.

When she backs into the frame up against the machines, the ball is fired. She does not appear to touch the handle in any way, nor was there any kind of visible latching mechanism at the front of the machine.

ball is in at the top of the machine!

How was this done?  It must have been someone behind the pachinko machine holding the lever down from the backside.  The ball is shot easily and does 2 loops of the outer circle before falling in the pins, so the spring and the motion of the shooter are fine.  I own 3 antique pachinko machines from this era and I have never heard of a shooter handle getting stuck down. What limits the shooter range is always just wood or metal physically preventing it from going farther, so there is nothing for it to get "stuck" on.

So that means that to get this shot, director Akira Kurosawa must have had a grip load the ball then wait behind the pachinko machine, hold the lever down, and then release it when the woman steps back towards the pachinko machines.

This is an extremely subtle detail, and there is no way it could be accidental.  Has anyone else noticed this detail before?  Kurosawa is a very famous director and his movies have been loved by fans and academics for decades, so perhaps this has been mentioned elsewhere.

I would like to know what people think Kurosawa hoped to convey by making this decision.  I had not noticed this before, so it was working subconsciously in the scene.  Now that I notice it, it certainly does add emphasis to the scene.

Let's end with looking at the other pachinko machines we see.  Over her right shoulder is a pachinko machine that says "BASE BALL" on the front, and in the last frame we see half of another pachinko machine.

 

If you have any pachinko machines that look like these, with a grid of nails, I might be interested in purchasing it.  Please email me at thetastates@gmail.com

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