Diseases Spread
About Diseases Spread
Half-cooked fish, scraps left until flies cover them, and laundry washed in the river carry disease before anyone notices. A bleaching-powder solution is the disinfectant the film insists on. Titles tell people to wear a mask outdoors and to put bedding in the sun, which kills germs. One person's carelessness reaches the family, a family's carelessness reaches the whole city, and from there the film warns that disease can cross Japan.
Cast & crew
More about Diseases Spread
Sanae Yamamoto directed Byōdoku no denpa (病毒の伝播) for the Ministry of Education, which also distributed it. Japanese Animated Film Classics calls it a rare all-animation hygiene film, with no live-action, drawn from the ministry's microscope pictures: Infectious Bacteria (1925), The Life of a Mosquito and the Spread of Disease (1925), and Flies and Diseases (1926).
Themes
Technique
Unlike the ministry's 1925–26 science films, which used microscope cinematography, this short is animation from start to finish.
Preservation
Japanese Animated Film Classics holds a 14-minute silent black-and-white copy and streams it as work 5433.
Notes
- A title says "Cook the fish well." Another child shouts to be given the fish quickly, and the next card marks it half-cooked.
- Bleaching-powder water kills germs.
- One person's carelessness reaches the family; a family's carelessness reaches the whole city.
- Wear a mask when you go out." "Sunlight kills germs.
- Other cards name negligence, leaving the job to someone else, and sloth.
Scenes
- Flies settle on scraps that were left out, and a title ties that mess to disease.
- Bedding is put in the sun after a card says sunlight kills germs.
- A mask title sends people out of the house covered.
Influenced by
- Infectious Bacteria (1925)
- The Life of a Mosquito and the Spread of Disease (1925)
- Flies and Diseases (1926)
Also available
- Japanese Animated Film Classics (work 5433)
- Wikimedia Commons (Sanae Yamamoto- Diseases Spread (1926).ogv)
Quotes
One person's carelessness reaches the family; a family's carelessness reaches the whole city.
Sunlight kills germs.
