Category Archives: Japan

Ehon Taikoki, Kanjincho (絵本太功記、勧進帳)

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  • Bunraku: 絵本太功記、勧進帳 (Ehon Taikoki, Kanjincho)

2/23/26 (Mon)

These were the second and third shows of a three-part production this month. Part 1 consisted of the first few acts of Ehon Taikoki, with succeeding acts in Part 2. I considered seeing the first two together since the full show is not done often in Bunraku (this was the first time in the Kanto region for certain acts in 20 years) and not at all in Kabuki, which has preserved just the 10th act of the 14-act show. But that would come to over six hours of showtime, a bit too much to ask of my friend. Bunraku lost its permanent home in Tokyo when the National Theater closed several years ago and is wandering among venues with each production, shedding fans along the way; this one was not even in Tokyo, and the theater was way too large for a puppet drama. But Yokohama is a massive city as well, and with the rarity of the pieces, both shows were nearly sold out, which was nice to see. The overall theme seemed to be losers from turning points in Japanese history, namely the treacherous Akechi Mitsuhide and the tragic hero Minamoto Yoshitsune. (The first play uses different names due to shogunal restrictions, but I’m using the historic names here.)

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The Gentle Twelve (12人の優しい日本人)

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  • 12人の優しい日本人 (The Gentle Twelve)

4/23/13 (Tue)

Nakahara Shun’s 1991 film version of a play from the previous year by the prolific Mitani Koki envisioning jury duty à la Japonaise based on the format of Twelve Angry Men – call it “Twelve Not-So-Angry Japanese”. While the jury system has since been introduced in Japan, Mitani seems less interested in politics than in showing the Japanese temperament at work. Twelve jurors initially dismiss a murder case in an eagerness to get their duty over with and return home, but one of them has second thoughts and forces a serious discussion, which proceeds in the movie roughly in real time. A man has been run over by a truck after allegedly being pushed into the street by his ex-wife. But was it premeditated or self-defense? Did the woman have murderous intent, or did she push him without realizing the truck was coming?

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Back to the Future the Musical (バックトゥザフューチャー)

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  • バックトゥザフューチャー (Back to the Future the Musical)

3/29/26 (Sun), Tokyo

I didn’t bother to see this in London or New York, wary as always about another movie-to-musical adaptation. But a friend had an extra ticket to this sold-out Japanese-language production, and I had heard good things about the staging, handled here as on the West End/Broadway by John Rando. As usual for productions by the giant Gekidan Shiki theatrical group, I saw no children at all at this family-oriented show. Families are crowded out by the avid Shiki fans, for better or worse.

The show itself is just the movie on stage with some mediocre songs thrown on top in all the predictable places. Continue reading →

Noh: Togan Koji, Choryo (東岸居士, 張良)

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  • Noh: 東岸居士, 張良 (Togan Koji, Choryo)

3/22/26 (Sun)

Togan Koji: An infrequently performed play by Zeami. The title can be translated as Lay Priest of the Eastern Shore, the latter referring to the entry point to the paradise on the west. Togan Koji, a real-life personage (he has a grave in Nagoya), was a disciple of Jinen Koji, the subject of a play by Zeami’s father. Whereas that play involved a kidnapping of a young girl and her dramatic rescue, Togan has little story at all. But that doesn’t mean lack of content.

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Noh: Hachinoki (鉢木)

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  • Noh:鉢木 (Hachinoki)

10/16/25 (Sun)

A monk wandering in the snow receives shelter in the home of a poor man. The man and his wife do their best to make their guest comfortable despite their straitened circumstances, providing a roof and humble millet and, most movingly, burning their prized potted trees for warmth, reminding me vaguely of La Bohème. (The title Hachinoki, or “The Potted Plants,” evidently implies a deeper container than the shallow dishes used in bonsai, but the concept sounds much the same.) The monk suspects from the man’s bearing and references to ancient poetry that something is amiss, and the man eventually confesses that he was formerly a samurai whose lands were unfairly usurped. He says that despite his troubles, he remains loyal to the shogun and would ride to his call even now if needed with his rusty armor, broken spear and weak horse. The monk, touched, encourages the couple as he takes his leave.

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A Look Back: Pacific Overtures in Tokyo (2000)

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A Look Back: Pacific Overtures in Tokyo

Here is an expanded version of an essay written originally for the Sondheim Review (reproduced here) discussing the innovative Tokyo production of the Japan-themed musical in 2000. The essay played a small role in helping to bring the production to New York in both Japanese and English. It discusses the differing perspectives of the American writers and Japanese director regarding the musical’s themes. A British-helmed production played in Tokyo nearly a quarter-century later but did not have the same impact. This longer essay was featured in The Oxford Handbook of the Global Stage Musical (2023).

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Golden Boy (ゴールデンボーイ)

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  • Golden Boy (ゴールデンボーイ)

3/4/26 (Wed)

A chance reference online led me to this YouTube broadcast of the full stage musical from a Tokyo production of September 1988, starring Nishikiori Kazukiyo from the then-popular Shonentai boy band. It was released in video back in the day by Warner Brothers Pioneer, but I was surprised to find a free download online, a rarity for a star vehicle in Japan. In any case, I had never seen this rarely produced musical in any language, so I immediately took a look. Continue reading →

Rental Family

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  • Rental Family

3/1/26 (Sun)

A lonely gaijin (Brendan Fraser) living in Tokyo is struggling as a would-be actor since his starring role seven years earlier in a Japanese toothpaste commercial. He spends much of his time in his tiny apartment looking forlornly Rear Window-like at people in the various apartments on the other side. Summoned for a job one day, he is surprised to arrive at a funeral – and even more shocked when the corpse pops up from the coffin and thanks everyone.

It turns out that the mourners were simply actors, employed by the man to provide him comfort that he will be remembered and that his life was worth something. The bewildered Fraser catches the eye of a businessman, who turns out to be an agency for just such bit players. He hires Fraser to act out real-life roles.

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Kabuki: Kumo no Ito (蜘蛛絲梓弦), Tale of Sanemori (実盛物語)

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  • Kabuki: 蜘蛛絲梓弦 (Kumo no Ito), 実盛物語 (Tale of Sanemori)

1/25/26 (Sun), Tokyo Kabukiza

Kabuki continues to boom following the unexpected success of the Kabuki-themed film Kokuho, still running at theaters after six months (it was just nominated for a minor Oscar this week). This month’s Kabuki program largely featured up-and-coming performers in prominent roles, which encouragingly drew a healthy crowd of young audiences. The first of the three shows, not listed here, was a light three-part dance piece celebrating the new year, basically an excuse to show off a large number of cast members.

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Pretty Woman (プリティ・ウーマン, musical)

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  • Pretty Woman (プリティ・ウーマン, musical)

1/23/26 (Fri), Tokyo

A Japanese-language version of the flop Broadway musical. This production appears meant as a showcase for the half-Spanish hunk Shirota Yu, who also translated the book and lyrics. The other main roles were double-cast despite an effective run of less than two weeks.

It was no better or worse than feared, basically a paint-by-numbers recreation of the movie with songs thrown on top, as with most of these film retreads. Continue reading →

Madame de Sade (サド侯爵夫人)

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  • サド侯爵夫人 (Madame de Sade)

1/18/26 (Sun), Tokyo

Mishima Yukio’s typically talky drama has its fans: it was selected by Japanese critics back in 1994 as the nation’s best play of the postwar era. (Mishima tied as best writer with the equally prolific Inoue Hisashi of Living With Father fame.) It was written in 1965, just five years before the author’s shocking seppuku – which I mention only because director Miyamoto Amon has decided to include this irrelevant fact as the first line in this production, spoken portentously by the actor who will play the servant (after he has stood facing us on the dark stage for several minutes of utter silence). A starry West End production some years back put critics to sleep, though a Swedish rendering by Ingmar Bergman, available on YouTube, is held in some esteem.

This production had two selling points. One, the six-woman show is played by an all-male cast, a technique that Japanese directors turn to occasionally. Second, the lead, Narimiya Hiroki, is making his comeback after abruptly quitting show business several years earlier over horrific media bullying regarding his private life. (As it happens, Higashide Masahiro, who plays the horny countess, is himself coming off an adultery scandal, which somehow feels appropriate for this piece.)

The author based the work on the historical fact that the Marquise de Sade waited devotedly for 12 years for her famously demented husband to be released from prison, only to refuse to see him ever again once he was finally out. The play examines this through the lives of six women, each representing a different side of French society (wifely devotion, social status, religion, etc). Continue reading →

Plan 75 (プラン75）

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  • Plan 75

12/27/25 (Sat)

Hayakawa Chie’s 2022 work, amazingly her first feature film, is a beautiful and understated rumination on an aging society, an acute issue in Japan. The government has crafted a sweet-sounding plan offering incentives for those 75 and older to, in effect, kill themselves. Those who sign up receive a ¥100,000 cash payment (rendered oddly as $1,000 in the subtitles) and can spend their final hours wining and dining in a lovely facility, where they will then be gassed to death. Cremation and other costs are completely covered as well. While the program is nominally voluntary, the attraction is strong for lonely old people with nowhere else to turn, and there is considerable pressure to ease the burden on society by slipping peacefully away rather than dragging on unproductively for decades more.

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