Donald Sosin has been enthralling audiences with his silent film music for over thirty years. Among his many commissions for scores and film festival appearances, he performs each year at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and is the pianist for the 2005 New York Film Festival's tribute to Shochiku.

Akira Tochigi is curator of film at the National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

(Ogon no dangan). Based on the “Benevolent Picaroon” series by Swedish-American author Herman Landon, this saga of murder, detection, and double identity recalls the picaresque adventures of Fantomas and other French crime serials, which were popular in Japan. “It marks the directorial debut of Hiroshi Innami (1902–38), who had a university degree, which was still rare for a film director at the time. Innami often moved from one studio to another, and primarily made contemporary films with a Western flavor. This is one of the very few extant films of the period in which Western stories are narrated virtually unchanged, i.e., without being adapted to look more Japanese. The spectacular chase sequence, involving cars, motorbikes, and horses, which goes on for two reels at the end of the film, is not to be missed!” (Fumiko Tsuneishi, National Film Center, Tokyo/Pordenone Silent Film Festival 2005).