Author Archives: Sekenbanashi

The Ghost of Yotsuya Parts 1 & 2 (新釈四谷怪談)

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  • 新釈四谷怪談 Parts 1 & 2 (The Ghost of Yotsuya)

1/11/25 (Thurs)

Kinoshita’s two-part 1949 work is one of more than two dozen film versions of the evergreen Kabuki classic Yotsuya Kaidan since the silent era. The first eight minutes or so of Part 2 simply repeat the final minutes of the first half, so I assume that this was originally intended as a single film, broken up either for excessive length or just to make an extra buck (the second one opened in theaters just two weeks after the first). The original Kabuki version was also split into two days, mixed with scenes from Chushingura (it was a spinoff of the latter), so I suppose it follows tradition in a sense. In any case, the film could and should be reedited into a single 2.5-hour film and should certainly be seen that way.

The Japanese title is literally “Yotsuya Ghost Story: A New Interpretation”. New is right – for one thing, the ghost story has no ghosts. Oiwa appears only as a figment of the guilt-ridden Iemon’s imagination rather than an actual spirit as in the play. The film cleverly has Tanaka Kinuya playing both Oiwa and Oiwa’s sister Osode, so that the latter represents for Iemon a haunting manifestation of Oiwa after her murder.

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Stereophonic

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  • Stereophonic

1/5/25 (Sun), Broadway

I had hesitated to see this widely praised show, the most Tony-nominated play in history, because of the obscene fees tacked on to the ticket price on some sites. I eventually managed to find something closer to reasonable as the date got closer, but the whole process is exhausting. Worse, I overheard the guy directly behind me saying that he got his ticket for an even lower price for essentially the same seat. Something doesn’t feel right about that.

The show, set in a Sausalito recording studio in the 1970s, is about the making of an album by a newly formed band combining a three-person British rock group with an American duo. That sounds an awful lot like Fleetwood Mac, though the writer denies it. In any case, the show not only covers the mechanics of creating an album but the dynamics among the players, where relationships already on the edge are being further frayed by the clash of egos. The problem is that musicians may be artists but are human too, and the ideal of leaving one’s musical mark for posterity can jar with the ephemeral emotional needs of the people involved.

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A Look Back: Premium tickets: Don’t bring us your poor

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At this point, Broadway may as well rename itself Martha’s Vineyard. The NY Times reports this weekend that the still-previewing production of Othello with megastars Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal has a top price of $921 for a single seat and has attracted an average — average! — ticket price of $361.90. That’s before the show has even opened or been reviewed. Its lowest-priced ticket for full-view seats is $197, and even those seats are reportedly scarcer than usual.

Yes, it’s a star vehicle, the producers are simply responding to demand, costs are high, there are other lower-priced shows, and so on. But basically this is a show for the rich; the rest of America need not apply. While it’s heartening in a way that Shakespeare can command the highest prices on Broadway, the message that this is sending is going to drive away a large segment of the population, an ominous development for the industry. People may go to specific shows, and tourists will always be there. But is there going to be anything like a theatergoing habit in the future? Producers have created a cost structure that is going to strangle them in the end. Continue reading →

Maybe Happy Ending

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  • Maybe Happy Ending

1/4/25 (Sat), Broadway

Korean culture, having triumphed in music (K-Pop), television (Squid Game) and film (Parasite), has now reached Broadway with this oddball musical set in Seoul in the near future. I had no intention of seeing musicals on this trip given the exorbitant prices and way too many disappointments, but the Asian origins proved irresistible, especially after its favorable critical reception. Word of mouth seems to be turning this quiet show into a sleeper hit. A Japanese version played in Tokyo a few years back, and I wish now that I had caught it.

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What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

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  • What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

1/2/25 (Tues)

I’m not sure if this 1962 film was meant to be serious, but it’s fantastic high camp, a drag queen’s dream. Bette Davis gives a gothic portrayal of the demented former star in Sunset Boulevard mixed with the demented fan in Misery, while Joan Crawford plays the crippled sister with an irritating gentleness that reminded me of Olivia de Havilland (Crawford’s real-life sister) in Gone With the Wind. Never a dull moment from start to finish.

A former child star failed to shake off her sweet, curly-haired Baby Jane image as she grew, only to see her little sister Blanche surpass her as a major movie star. Unfortunately Blanche was left crippled at the peak of her stardom, reportedly run over by her drunk and bitter sister. She is now wheelchair-bound, living with the spinster Jane on the second floor of her home. Jane has never forgiven Blanche for snatching stardom from her and treats her abominably, which is where the camp comes in. Continue reading →

Miller’s Crossing

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  • Miller’s Crossing

12/28/24 (Sat)

The Coen Brothers’ third effort is fantastic in every way: a razor-sharp script, great acting all around, distinctive characters, a superb balance of humor, blood and emotion. If the story of a gangster who plays both sides against each other sounds like Yojimbo, it’s because both are supposedly inspired by the same novel (or novels) by Dashiell Hammett. Continue reading →

Destiny’s Son (斬る)

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  • 斬る (Destiny’s Son)

12/27/24 (Fri)

Misumi Kenji’s 1962 chambara flick inconveniently has the same Japanese title Kiru (meaning slash to death) as Okamoto Kihachi’s wild 1968 work, which managed to beat the earlier film to the obvious English choice Kill.

The film opens with a dynamic sequence in which a maidservant sneaks in and stabs the lord’s mistress to death “for the sake of the clan”. Skipping forward a year, we learn that the man chosen to execute her has fallen in love with her, and it is only after their son is born that he duly cuts her head off. He entrusts the child to a low-ranking samurai and becomes a monk, shutting himself off from the world entirely.

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Noh: Kagekiyo (景清)

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  • NOH: 景清 (Kagekiyo)

12/18/24 (Wed)

The great warrior Kagekiyo, devastated after the Heike loss, has blinded himself in despair and lives a desolate life as a recluse in a remote hut in Hyuga Province (today’s Miyazaki Prefecture). His worried daughter, refusing to believe rumors of his death, has set out with her retainer to find him. Continue reading →

The Conversation

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  • The Conversation

12/15/24 (Sat)

In Coppola’s 1974 film, free-lance wiretapper Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a gruff loner considered the best in his field, is charged with tapping the conversations of a normal-looking couple. His intricate work involves several mikes and cameras placed in various spots, and his golden rule is to know as little as possible and never get personally involved in any information he acquires. The couple, aware that they could be under surveillance, wander around San Francisco’s Union Square speaking quietly to each other, but their words are all picked up by Harry. The problem comes when he hears remarks suggesting that they may be in danger, particularly the line, “He’d kill us if he got the chance” – or is it “He’d kill us if he got the chance,” implying something very different?

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Madame Butterfly (1915 silent film)

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  • Madame Butterfly (1915 silent film)

2/1/22 (Tues)

I realized after writing about the Fritz Lang Butterfly that I never posted this review of the older silent version of the opera. I found this film by chance online when doing research for my Kabuki version of Butterfly [which finally debuted in Dec 2024]. The only names I recognized were Mary Pickford in the title role and David Burton as a Japanese prince who wants to marry her – casting that wouldn’t go over well today.

The story is taken broadly from the opera but changed in significant ways. The biggest difference is that Butterfly is not a geisha for hire but the daughter of a well-to-do family, which changes the dynamics considerably. Continue reading →

Hero of the Red Light District (妖刀物語：花の吉原百人斬り)

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  • 妖刀物語：花の吉原百人斬り (Hero of the Red Light District)

12/6/24 (Fri)

Uchida Tomu’s 1960 film draws liberally from the much-revived Meiji-era Kabuki classic Kagotsurube (1888), the story of a lonely pockmarked man whose desperation to be loved makes him an easy mark for unscrupulous people, leading ultimately to tragedy. (The Kabuki was itself based on a real-life incident.) Uchida veers from the popular tale in significant ways that make for an interesting study. A more literal translation of the Japanese title would be something like, “The Story of the Haunted Sword: Glittering Yoshiwara and the Mass Slaying”. (Hyakunin-giri or “mass slaying” literally means slashing 100 persons but is simply meant to indicate a large number of people. The phrase is known for its unfortunate use as a killing contest during Japan’s invasion of China, about which the less said the better. More happily, it can also be a sexual term meaning to bed dozens of people.) The English title is lame: the guy is no hero, and the story involves a street prostitute thrown into the world of courtesans, not quite a red light district.

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