I viewed a print of this short movie courtesy of Lobster Films, Paris. Here we have a French 'trick' film by the Pathe Brothers, from the same period in which Georges Melies was making his very popular trick movies. However, in Melies's films the trickery was accomplished by jump cuts, and spectacle was provided by elaborate sets and audacious story lines. In 'The Kiriki, Japanese Acrobats', we have a fairly straightforward acrobatic performance, abetted by some trickery that is far simpler than Melies's box of tricks, yet no less satisfying.
We see some men, women and children in gymnastic clothing, clearly Caucasian yet made up to look vaguely Oriental, with ridiculously built-up foreheads covered by ludicrous hairstyles. The women creep back and forth in that ridiculous shuffling gait (move the feet very quickly but in very tiny steps) that western performers affect to simulate Orientals. I realise that, in the first decade of the twentieth century, the most proficient acrobatic troupes were nearly all Japanese ... but frankly, this ying-tong Japanoiserie did absolutely nothing to add to the proceedings, and should have been dispensed with.
In small groups, the troupe rapidly execute a series of acrobatic manoeuvres which are so dazzling that they seem nearly superhuman. There is, of course, a trick: a deceptively simple one, yet done so skilfully that some viewers may have difficulty figuring it out.
TRICK EXPLAINED NOW. Except for some 'book-end' footage at the beginning and the end, which is shot conventionally, the entire movie is filmed with an overhead camera shooting STRAIGHT DOWN onto a black velvet dropcloth surrounded by four upright walls. The actors, lying on this surface, affect postures to indicate that they are standing upright, with one of the walls being treated as a horizontal floor. When the tumblers move 'upwards', supposedly defying gravity, they are in fact merely moving horizontally, away from the wall representing the 'floor' and towards the opposite wall representing the 'ceiling'. The lighting, from directly above, eliminates side shadows and makes the trickery less obvious.
The trick is made more difficult to spot because the stunts are done quickly and proficiently, and the performers demonstrate some genuine agility. To call this a 'trick' film is slightly demeaning to their efforts, since there is some genuine acrobatic work going on here: just not in the direction that it seems to be.
I was amused and impressed by this movie, but I would have enjoyed it far more without the utterly unnecessary racial stereotyping. My rating for this one: 6 out of 10.
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