Author Archives: Sekenbanashi

Noh: Kocho, Tenko (胡蝶, 天鼓)

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  • 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)

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  • 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.

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Fashion Freak Show

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  • 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.

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Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

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  • 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.

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Emilia Pérez

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  • 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.

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I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui )

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  • 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.

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Touchez Pas Au Grisbi

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  • 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.

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Summertime

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  • 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…

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A Look Back: Hamilton

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Hamilton is welcoming its 10th anniversary on Broadway on August 6 (coinciding here in Japan with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing), so I thought I’d rerun my review of some years back. The NY Times and other outlets seem particularly taken by the musical’s use of race-blind (or, more accurately, race-conscious) casting, though it has always reminded me of the black characters in Get Out who are so desperate to be white. Also, its message of tolerance and love doesn’t seem to have reached some of its cast members. 

In any case, I was more interested in the author’s view of history. Hamilton, portrayed in the show as an immigrant, was nothing of the kind: he was a white guy of British/French heritage who moved from one British colony (in the Caribbean) to another British colony (New York), where Thomas Jefferson and John Adams would equally have been “immigrants” prior to American independence, and was pretty stridently anti-immigration himself once the new nation was established. That rather undercuts the intended message of the show. It’s better enjoyed as a parody of history, and in that sense it’s great fun. Here’s my review.

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Don’t Look Back

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  • Don’t Look Back

7/11/25 (Fri)

DA Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary of Bob Dylan’s tour in England two years earlier is said to be a landmark in rockumentary filmmaking. (The title’s first word is actually spelled for some reason without the apostrophe, but I’m going with the real thing.) It follows the Nobel laureate and others in cars, hotel rooms, offices, the streets, and the concert stage, where he performs some of his numbers. He also plays snatches of songs backstage along with Donovan, Joan Baez (who he was dating) and others.

It’s a very curious film in that Dylan, who we would expect to be portrayed with reverence, comes off as a condescending jerk. Continue reading →

Noh: Hajitomi (半蔀)、Koya Monogurui (高野物狂)

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  • Noh: 半蔀 (Hajitomi)、高野物狂 (Koya Monogurui)

7/13/25 (Sun), Tokyo

I hadn’t seen either of these pieces, so I figured it was a good chance to catch something new. I accidentally bought four tickets rather than two and couldn’t find anyone interested in joining us, including a friend living a two-minute walk from the theater. I guess I’ll look on it as a donation to the Yarai Noh Theater group. 

Hajitomi: This is based on the famous “Yugao” chapter of the Tales of Genji. I read Arthur Waley’s moving translation of this chapter the night before as preparation. The title of the show refers to the lattice shutters that the women were slyly peeking through when Genji spotted them. The show is not a reworking of that story, using the character of Yugao instead for its own purposes. Continue reading →

Suddenly Last Summer (1959 film), Suddenly Last Summer (1993 BBC)

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  • Suddenly, Last Summer (1959 film), 7/2/25 (Wed)
  • Suddenly Last Summer (1993 BBC), 7/3/25 (Thurs)

I learned after watching Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s wild and starry movie version of Tennessee Williams’ one-act play, filmed only a year after its off Broadway debut, that the stage show itself was presented more or less unchanged on the BBC many years later. That comparison was too tempting to pass up.

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