Film evolved differently in different cultures. In the West the cinema was perceived as a new form of photography and could thus develop relatively free of the precedents of prior dramaturgy. In the East, however, particularly in Japan, the first Asian country to create a film industry, cinema was seen as a new form of drama.
Consequently, from the first, movies were subservient to the stage. The film frame was seen as a proscenium, the camera was a spectator permanently front center, and the authoritative presentational voice of drama was retained. In noh this is the chorus, in the "joruri" doll drama and in early films, it is the "benshi."
The benshi narrated the lines of those on the flickering screen and (just like a "gidayu" reciter) added his own comments. The stories he accompanied were taken from the kabuki, from traditional fiction, from the shimpa drama. As Tadao Sato has commented, film was new but what it showed was old.