“More Bread Please!“ (1933)

Subtitle reads: “Just an Idea what these Words mean to the Rural Japanese.“ Introductory intertitle reads: “More bread, please! With us that’s just a phrase. In rural Japan it’s a prayer - a prayer that breaks hearts and backs.“ M/S of a worker in a paddy field cutting the crop with a hand tool. “Black wheat - but every sheaf is precious.“ M/S of the worker binding up the crop and carrying off a bundle. “About the nearest approach to machinery in the whole process - a comb-like apparatus for tearing loose the heads.“ M/S of woman worker using the combing tool. A child stands close by. C/U of the combing tool. “Threshing - no job for soft flesh.“ Various shots of women workers. One uses a sieve. “Clearing the chaff, just as they did it a thousand years ago.“ Woman uses a primitive basketwork tool to clear the chaff. C/U of her at work. “The drying mats.“ The wheat is spread out on a drying mat. It is then scooped up into a flat basket and tipped into a earthenware pot. It is then po