Category Archives: Japan

Kabuki: An Actor’s Revenge (新版 雪之丞変化 )

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  • Kabuki: 新版 雪之丞変化 (An Actor’s Revenge)

8/26/19 (Mon), Tokyo Kabukiza

Based on the hit 1934 novel and its many adaptations, including a stage show, an opera, a Takarazuka spectacle, several TV versions and two hugely successful films (1935 and 1963) both starring Hasegawa Kazuo. The Japanese title this time is preceded by “shinpan” or new version, suggesting a significantly revised work. Tamasaburo takes on the part of Yukinojo, an onnagata female-role specialist seeking to avenge his parents’ murder, thus nominally playing a man (albeit dressed and acting throughout as a woman). This seemed a natural fit for Kabuki since the story is after all about Kabuki actors, offering plentiful opportunity for show-within-a-show snippets, and Tamasaburo himself is the most famous onnagata on the stage today. He has directed and adapted this production.

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Farewell to Spring (惜春鳥)

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  • 惜春鳥 (Farewell to Spring)

7/30/19 (Tues)

Kinoshita Keisuke’s (Twenty-Four Eyes, Like a Wild Chrysanthemum) 1959 Farewell to Spring — the poetic Japanese title refers to a bird that awakens wistful memories of spring, i.e., lost youth — has been called Japan’s first gay movie, but that definition would have to be stretched fairly liberally. One man’s return to his hometown after university spurs the old gang of five to get back together, a reunion that proves bittersweet.

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A look back: Sugimoto Bunraku “Sonezaki Shinju” (杉本文楽「曽根崎心中」)

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  • A look back: 杉本文楽「曽根崎心中」(Sugimoto Bunraku “Sonezaki Shinju”) ,

The huge popularity of Sonezaki Shinju (Love Suicide at Sonezaki) among Japanese Bunraku fans is in fact a recent phenomenon. It was a massive hit in its debut in 1703, famously rescuing its theater from bankruptcy, but fell out of favor for many years following a ban by concerned authorities on shows thought to glorify double suicides. A sensational revival of the Kabuki adaptation in 1953 that presented the lead female in a stronger light led to newfound interest in the Bunraku original, which was revived to great success in 1955. Its fame since has never waned.

With the Sugimoto Bunraku production of Sonezaki Shinju (Love Suicide at Sonezaki) soon to open in New York, I looked back and realized that I had never printed my review of the original production from August 2011 in Yokohama. So here it is below. (Also, here’s a look at Sugimoto’s production of another Bunraku classic in 2017.)

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The Human Bullet (肉弾)

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  • 肉弾 (The Human Bullet)

8/4/19 (Sun)

A wild anti-war satire by Okamoto Kihachi. This low-budget film, told in retrospect from the perspective of hedonistic 1968 (when the film was made), shows a lowly soldier doing his best to maintain his loyalty to crown and country toward the end of the war. Okinawa has been lost and Hiroshima obliterated, but the soldiers pretend to believe that victory is in sight in what we now know are the war’s final days. Continue reading →

Noh: Jinen Koji, Shozon (自然居士、正尊)

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  • Noh: 自然居士、正尊  (Jinen Koji, Shozon)

7/21/19 (Sun), Tokyo Umewaka Noh

Today’s offerings were both genzai Noh plays dealing with real-world events rather than ghosts. They date respectively from the beginning and end of the active period of Noh drama, the first by Noh’s esteemed founder Kan’ami and the second by the much later Yajiro Nagatoshi. They present a striking contrast, symbolizing how elegance and dance gave way to an emphasis on action in Noh’s evolution.

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Wife (妻)

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  • 妻 (Wife), 7/19/19 (Fri)

Naruse’s 1953 film, based on a story by his muse Hayashi Fumiko, opens with voiceovers by a wife and husband grumbling to themselves about their unhappy marriage. The wife Mineko complains about the husband Juichi’s lack of ambition and ability, their financial strain and Juichi’s clear lack of interest in her. She busies herself with small sewing jobs and overseeing their upstairs tenants to boost their income, but gets little support from Juichi. Meanwhile, Juichi bemoans his bureaucratic job, his wife’s undeniably slovenly ways and the draining routine of his unexciting home life. He compares the sloppy bento prepared by his wife with the beautifully arranged lunch eaten by the cheery typist at the next desk. He understandably becomes drawn to the typist, who returns the affection. Mineko is livid when she finds out about their secret trysts and confronts the woman, who is shamed into returning to her hometown. The couple thus remain together but out of habit rather than romance. The film ends with another set of voiceovers as the wife and husband each contemplate whether to leave the other – would that solve anything? would being single at this point be any easier for either? – while carefully avoiding showing how that is resolved.

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Kabuki: Takatoki, Saigo and the Pig Princess, Suo Otoshi, The Medicine Peddler (高時, 西郷と豚姫, 素襖落, 外郎売)

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  • Kabuki: 高時, 西郷と豚姫, 素襖落, 外郎売 (Takatoki, Saigo and the Pig Princess, Suo Otoshi, The Medicine Peddler)

7/24/19 (Wed), Tokyo Kabukiza

This month’s performance was completely sold out on the strength of a six-year-old actor, son of superstar Ebizo, taking on a role usually played by an adult. The boy is often featured in his father’s widely followed blog, and Ebizo fever has basically enveloped him as well. The first three shows today were all Meiji or Taisho Era pieces that veer from traditional Kabuki in certain ways, while the last, in which the child appears, is a once-archaic Edo Era sketch that was revived/reconstructed in 1985.

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Gate of Hell (地獄門)

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  • 地獄門 (Gate of Hell)

5/18/19 (Sat)

I watched Kinugasa Teinosuke’s 1953 film after the death of its star Kyo Machiko a few days earlier. This was apparently Japan’s first color film to be distributed worldwide, and it made a huge impression, winning major awards at Cannes, the Oscars and elsewhere. Coming shortly after Rashomon, it cemented Japan’s place on the map of world cinema, a position that was to be further enhanced over the decade to follow. (Some have suggested that the title in Japanese, Jigokumon, was aimed at riding the coattails of Rashomon (mon = gate), but that seems far-fetched.)

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Le Marie-Vison (毛皮のマリー )

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  • 毛皮のマリー (Le Marie-Vison)

4/2/19 (Tues), Tokyo New National Theatre

This is one of four Tokyo productions in recent months of Terayama Shuji’s classic underground work from the late 1960s. This production stars Miwa Akihiro, the cross-dressing television and singing personality who was the inspiration for the show and its original star back when he was young and cute. He was so impossibly campy in Mishima’s Black Lizard a few years back that I walked out, but given his close association with this role, I figured I’d give him another chance. The direction follows that of the original hippie-era production. The Japanese and French titles (taken from a song popularized by Yves Montand) translate to something like “Marie in Mink”.

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A Good Man, A Good Day (好人好日)

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  • 好人好日 (A Good Man, A Good Day)

1/26/19 (Sat), Tokyo

A film retrospective of the noted actress Iwashita Shima offered a double-feature bringing together two works in which she played the daughter of Ozu favorite Ryu Chishu. And that’s where the similarities stop. Continue reading →