With the release of the filmed version of the 2023 Broadway revival of the cult Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, the timing seems right for a rerun of this piece from last year. Unlike the Met Live and National Theatre Live productions, the film is not the record of a single performance but shot over three days and edited into one work. While that feels like cheating — it essentially gives the actors three takes to get it right, going against the entire idea of a live show — it does give a wider audience a look at a flawed vehicle that most are unlikely to see in person. Reviews of the film rendering have been mixed, but the production itself, based on the original London showing that I saw some years ago, was solid. It’s also a way for the producers to squeeze even more money out of the show after charging up to $899 per ticket on Broadway. Here is my take.
Yankee damns Yankees
- Yankee damns Yankees
10/12/25 (Sun)
It seems that the 1955 musical Damn Yankees is set to be the next sacrifice on the altar of woke. I was excited to hear that a revival of the show, one of the best of the Golden Age musicals, will be moving to Broadway after an apparently successful run in Washington DC. I saw the last revival twice in 1994 with a pitch-perfect Victor Garber as the devil, and it was a joy. I remember in previews when 104-year-old George Abbott, the original director four decades earlier, showed up in the audience to a standing ovation.
Undercurrent (夜の河)
- 夜の河 (Undercurrent)
10/11/25 (Sat)
Yoshimura Kozaburo’s 1956 melodrama (also known more literally as Night River) is another of his Mizoguchi-type female-centric films exploring the plight of women in contemporary Japan. Yamamoto Fujiko is a Kyoto kimono designer working at her family shop. Her talent and perseverance have won her success in what is seen as a dying industry (back in 1956! – fortunately that proved untrue) in an increasingly Westernized society. She missed out on the normal marriage years due to the war and is now 30 and unwed, quite old for the time. She is resolved to be her own woman, not reliant on anyone, and rejects the efforts of her friends and family to match her up. A young painter is clearly in love with her, even basing his works on her, but to his despair, she takes no notice romantically.
During a stroll into town, she happens upon a man (Uehara Ken) wearing a tie with her design. Something about him attracts her, and they strike up a friendship. Continue reading
Highest 2 Lowest
- Highest 2 Lowest
10/9/25 (Thurs)
I shouldn’t be commenting on this since I only watched a small part before giving up. I was excited to learn of this remake of the Kurosawa classic High & Low, directed by Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington – how perfect is that? The moviemakers retain the basic plot of a businessman who must decide whether to save his employee’s kid at a devastating cost to himself, but shift the setting to a black music producer taunted by a struggling rap artist. I re-watched the original first with friends, then took in the remake.
All of us were stunned at how awful this was in just about every department. Continue reading
Noh: Kocho, Tenko (胡蝶, 天鼓)
- NOH: 胡蝶, 天鼓 (Kocho, Tenko)
9/21/25 (Sun), Umewaka
Kocho: This winter piece is rather unseasonal in these still humid days, but it’s always a pleasure to watch. A butterfly laments to a monk that she has never seen a plum, which blossoms in the late winter, since butterflies don’t live that long. The monk recites a sutra for her, and the power of prayer allows her miraculously to enjoy the flower.
You’d have to look hard to find any profound theme in this, but it’s a light and lovely show. Continue reading
Lullaby of the Earth (大地の子守歌)
- 大地の子守歌 (Lullaby of the Earth)
9/15/25 (Mon)
Masamura Yasuzo’s 1976 work was playing at a retrospective of powerful film performances by actresses, and a friend spoke so highly of Harada Mieko that it piqued my interest.
It is the 1930s. An orphaned 13-year-old girl has been raised by an old lady in the happy solitude of the mountains of Iyo (Ehime Prefecture). She returns one day to find the woman dead. Extremely strong-willed, she is determined to live her life dependent on no one. She initially rejects one man who tries to recruit her for steady work, but gives in when she learns that it is by the sea, which she’s always dreamed of seeing. She is taken to a remote island, where unsurprisingly she is put to work in a brothel, though, given her age, as an assistant to the girls and not a prostitute herself.
She is headstrong and not interested in making friends or being liked. She resists limits and labels: she insists on rowing the boat that takes the prostitutes out to sailors, usually a man’s job, and cuts her hair to look like a man. She resolutely refuses to be with clients even after she gets her first period – which she only comprehends after a kind lady on the outside explains – but gives in when she realizes that the money earned can buy her way out. After first forcing a young kid to have sex with her to get that out of the way, she plunges into that world as with everything and is soon the most popular whore in the house.
Fashion Freak Show
- Fashion Freak Show
9/12/25 (Fri)
Jean Paul Gaultier’s more-or-less autobiographical show, subtitled “The Exhibition”, has evidently been around for a few years, but I knew nothing about it when a friend called and tempted me with a free ticket. I assumed at first that it would just be a fashion show, but reviews from London and elsewhere suggested that it was a musical revue of sorts and were broadly positive. And I couldn’t argue with the price.
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
- Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
9/7/25 (Sun)
Criterion introduced a salute to Robert Altman this month, and this 1982 title caught my eye. It’s based on a Broadway play that Altman himself directed the same year with the same starry cast. Having just seen Emilia Pérez, I was surprised to come across another transgender role, this time from eons ago (the play was written in 1976). Even more interesting, the film, similar to the much later work, was not patronizing or preachy.
Emilia Pérez
- Emilia Pérez
9/3/25 (Wed), plane
French director Jacques Audiard’s much-discussed flick about a transgender mob boss, played by a male-to-female transgender performer, didn’t immediately appeal to me despite all its awards and critical praise. I figured it would be a finger-wagging love-thy-trans-neighbor lecture. But a friend gave it such an enthusiastic review that I decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did.
I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui )
- Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here)
8/11/25 (Mon)
This biographical film by Brazilian master Walter Salles about one of the “disappearances” under the nation’s military dictatorship caught my interest right away after the fascinating They Shot the Piano Player, which dealt with the same phenomenon under the contemporaneous Argentine military dictatorship. (Now we need a Chilean film to complete the trilogy.) The movie is based on a memoir by the protagonist’s son.
The film unflinchingly depicts the horrors of the regime, not only the violence but the psychological trauma of the unknown. Still, the real theme is Eunice’s incredible resilience in the face of the ordeal, especially her determination to give her children a normal life as she works against all odds to learn her husband’s fate.
Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
- Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
8/2/25 (Sat)
Writer/director Jacques Becker’s acclaimed 1954 film, which has different English titles but translates as “Don’t Touch the Loot”, was apparently a landmark in France. It brings a more introspective take to film noir, giving new life to that genre as well as reviving the career of the aging former heartthrob Jean Gabin.
Summertime
- Summertime (1955)
7/5/25 (Sat)
David Lean’s 1955 rom-com, based on Arthur Laurents’ stage play The Time of the Cuckoo of three years earlier (which was also adapted by the writer in 1965 into a flop musical Do I Hear a Waltz?), comes just before he turned to the huge epics that we generally associate him with. Jane (Katharine Hepburn) is a cautious middle-aged spinster on a dream trip to Venice. Pleasant and intelligent, she is also conservative, conventional (down to her name), and unable or unwilling to let her emotions out. She’s determined to like the city: “I’ve got to! I’ve come such a long way!” But she views most everything through her camera lens. While she meets numerous couples along the way, she always refrains from joining them, afraid of being a “fifth wheel”, despite her longing to do so. Upon an encounter with the Italian owner of an antiques shop, she is wary at first, almost allowing him to get away. She finally gets her courage up and gradually gives in to his passion for her, opening herself up to the possibility of love. Then she discovers, not unsurprisingly, that he is married…
sekenbanashi 