永遠の０ (The Eternal Zero)
A film of a best-selling book about children seeking the truth about their grandfather, who died in a kamikaze mission towards the war’s end. He turns out to have been a soldier who did not go gently into the good night, insisting that he was not mere cannon fodder and wanted to live – a dangerous view at the time. Continue reading
BUNRAKU: 大塔宮曦鎧、恋娘昔八丈
12/14/13 (Sat), Tokyo
Bunraku was showing off some of the younger singers and performers this month. Continue reading
赤線地帯 (Street of Shame)
9/16/13 (Thurs), Tokyo
Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1956 film about five prostitutes working at a brothel (the ironically named “Dreamland”) in Yoshiwara, Tokyo’s old red-light district, and struggling to survive amid the changing mores of the post-war era. The government is moving to outlaw prostitution with the laudable aim of protecting women (and to answer public opinion), but the move would in fact destroy not only the livelihood of these women but, in Mizoguchi’s world, the only way that women can make it on their own in society. Continue reading
Kabuki: 不知火検校, 馬盗人 (Shiranui Kengyo, The Horse Thief)
9/6/13 (Fri), Tokyo
Shiranui Kengyo is a rare showing of a modern piece dating from 1960 that is known mainly as the inspiration for the wildly successful “Zatoichi” movie series. Continue reading
リットルマーメード (The Little Mermaid) (stage)
8/24/13 (Sat), Gekidan Shiki, Tokyo
This show had stumbled badly on Broadway some five years ago, blamed widely on a bizarre and overblown production by a European operatic director. (Videos of some of the numbers suggest that the critics were right.) Shiki has picked up another version that has been reconceived by an American designer, which has reportedly been well received in Europe. I didn’t see the original stage version and didn’t have any real interest in the new production, but when a friend offered the impossible-to-get cheap seats in the last two rows, it seemed worth a look. Continue reading
宝塚 BOYS (Takarazuka Boys)
8/7/13 (Wed), Tokyo
A dramatization of Hankyu Corporation’s efforts to create a male counterpart to its all-girl Takarazuka troupe after the war. Given the experiment’s failure and the setting amid the ashes of a defeated Japan, I assumed the play would be a standard weepie. But a friend invited me, and I figured it may at least have some camp value.
It was pretty much as feared. Continue reading
化粧 2幕
5/26/09 (Tue), Tokyo
This is a frequently revived one-woman show by the prolific Inoue Hisashi that’s been around since the early 1980s starring Watanabe Misako. Besides Japan, it’s been performed by Watanabe in Paris, London and the U.S. in Japanese, and there was a brief English-language production in London with Frances de la Tour under the name Greasepaint (much more evocative than the usual English title Makeup). The show was sold out throughout the entire run, but I was fortunate to get a same-day seat.
Continue reading
Konpira Kabuki: Shunkan, Ninokuchi Village, The Zen Substitute (俊寛、新口村、身代座禅)
4/18/09 (Sat), Konpira Kabuki, Kotohira City (Shikoku)
I finally got a chance to see Konpira Kabuki, the series performed in April each year at the foot of the famous Konpira Shrine in this small Shikoku town. The theater, Kanamaruza, dates from 1835 and is not only Japan’s oldest active Kabuki playhouse but the only extant theater from the Edo Era. I love regional Kabuki and their typical small old theaters, but this is a step way beyond that, featuring the biggest names in the business with full costumes and specially made sets and extremely high production values. Continue reading
BUNRAKU：敵討襤褸錦 (Vendetta of a Samurai in Rags)
2/7/09 (Sat), 国立劇場
I had never even heard of this show, a 1736 drama translated variously as “Vendetta of a Samurai in Rags” and “The Outcast’s Revenge and the Brocade of Rags”, and there’s little information about it out there. So I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It turns out to have been memorable for unexpected reasons. Continue reading
KABUKI: 柳影澤蛍火 (The Ambition of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu)
7/19/16 (Tues), Kabukiza
The first Tokyo revival of a show written by Uno Nobuo for the National Theatre in 1970. A young ronin manipulates friends, acquaintances and his own fiancée to claw his way to the shogun’s inner circle before overplaying his hand. The ruler is the eccentric Tsunayoshi, the disastrous “dog shogun” in the late 17th-century Genroku Era known for his edict protecting animals. Continue reading
Takarazuka: Chicago
7/11/16 (Mon), Yokohama
Takarazuka versions of Broadway musicals are always entertaining in their inimitable way, including rewritten scripts, reshuffled songs and superstar treatment for the main male character, regardless of his/her co-stars or the needs of the story. Chicago was a strange choice since its two leads are female – it’s just not as interesting when women are playing women, especially at the usual talent level of Takarazuka players. Continue reading
獅子王 (Shishi-Oh), 5/3/16 (Tues), Las Vegas MGM Continue reading
sekenbanashi 