- Cure
10/19/23 (Thurs)
Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s 1997 film is considered a classic of the horror genre and was apparently highly influential. Continue reading
Category Archives: Japan
Japan’s fumbling National Theater grasps for relevance
- January 4, 2024
Mainichi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest dailies, recently published my article on the government’s scandalous mismanagement of the nation’s soon-to-be-rebuilt National Theater, dedicated to Kabuki and other traditional performing arts. The theater’s travails have been widely noted in the Japanese press, but there has been little analysis of why the troubles have arisen or how to resolve them. I offer my view below.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231228/p2a/00m/0op/003000c
Garden of Women (女の園)
- 女の園 (Garden of Women)
10/12/23 (Thurs)
Kinoshita Keisuke’s unusual 1954 work, which he wrote and directed, was ranked second in that year’s Kinejun poll only to yet another Kinoshita film, his smash hit Twenty-Four Eyes (and amazingly above The Seven Samurai, Chikamatsu Story, Late Chrysanthemums, Sansho the Bailiff, and An Inn in Osaka, among others). It is not nearly in the league of any of those and may have been helped by its sensational theme and starry cast. Still, it is extremely interesting as a portrait of a certain age. Oshima Nagisa says that this is the piece that inspired him to become a director, which makes sense considering the politics of his works. I assume the garden (園) is a reference to a school academy (学園), though the source novel is in fact called Artificial Garden (人工庭園).
Bunraku: Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy (菅原伝授手習鑑), Love Suicide at Sonezaki (曽根崎心中)
- Bunraku: 曽根崎心中 (Love Suicide at Sonezaki), 9/8/23 (Fri)
- Bunraku: 菅原伝授手習鑑 (Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy), Acts III-V, 9/16/23 (Sat)
This is being billed as the last Bunraku puppet drama in Tokyo’s current money-losing National Theater, which will shut down for reconstruction at the end of next month. The government plans to replace the aging theater, built in the mid 1960s as a showcase for Kabuki, Bunraku and other Japanese traditional performing arts, with a large hotel/retail/theater complex, a PFI project reportedly due to cost some ¥80 billion. However, the plan hit a big speed bump last month when it failed for a second time to attract a single bidder, i.e., private developers see no commercial prospects for a building of this type in that location. Kabuki has consistently failed to draw audiences in recent years, while Bunraku, the theater’s one bright spot, only visits from its Osaka base for 2-3 weeks each quarter, which is insufficient to sustain the property financially. The government has not explained why it thinks that rebuilding the theater in this location will attract Kabuki audiences who aren’t showing up now, and as the project is supposed to take an inordinate 6-7 years to complete, the big question for Bunraku, which will be relegated in the interim to a distant corner of the city, is whether there will be any fans left at that point. This is less death than suicide. Continue reading
The American Clock (アメリカの時計)
- アメリカの時計 (The American Clock)
9/18/23 (Mon), Yokohama
A Japanese production of this lesser known 1980 drama by Arthur Miller based on his own family’s experience during the Depression. Continue reading
A Legend or Was It? (死闘の伝説)
- 死闘の伝説 (A Legend or Was It?)
8/13/23 (Sun)
Kinoshita Keisuke tries his best to be cynical in this 1963 film about a small village in Hokkaido in the closing weeks of WWII, but his sentimental streak inevitably intrudes. The unfortunate English title is sometimes rendered more literally as Legend of a Duel to the Death.
Moulin Rouge (ムーランルージュ)
- ムーランルージュ (Moulin Rouge)
8/12/23 (Sat), Tokyo
The two-month run was completely sold out well in advance of the opening. I was curious about the show because of the unusual use of music – not the original songs but the brief clips from well-known numbers that sprang up so often throughout the show. Those range from “Nature Boy” and “The Sound of Music” to “Lady Marmalade” and “Material Girl”, encompassing standards, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Queen and more, and I’m sure there were more up-to-date numbers that I simply didn’t recognize. Some were just a few seconds long, quoting a line or two, while others, most notably Elton John’s “Your Song”, were quoted extensively.
I was wondering if the older numbers would even be familiar to Japanese audiences, especially in the age group that they’re catering to. Because the songs are crucial to the action, they have all been translated into Japanese. As with Mamma Mia, the songs are fun to hear in a different context, but that assumes a knowledge of them in the first place; we know instantly what the song is referring to and thus respond to that memory, since the songs are rarely played in full. Translating them also takes the fun out of it. That said, Mamma Mia has been hugely popular here as everywhere, so what do I know?
The show, it turns out, is tremendous fun. Continue reading
Immortal Love (永遠の人)
- 永遠の人 (Immortal Love)
8/11/23 (Fri)
The Japanese title of Kinoshita Keisuke’s 1961 film is literally “the everlasting person”, which would at first glance imply a soul mate or life partner. Here, however, it is used ironically to indicate someone that the protagonist can never shake off – the memory of her true love, the reality of her spiteful husband, or possibly the resentful person that she herself has become. The British title, Bitter Spirit, comes closer to the sense of this relentlessly bleak film.
Roningai (浪人街)
- 浪人街 (Roningai)
7/23/23 (Sun), home, w/ Shinpei, 4:30-6:30p
Kuroki Kazuo’s 1990 film is the fourth remake of a silent-era epic by the legendary Makino Masahiro. Masahiro himself was supposed to helm the work as a tribute to his father Shozo, known as the founder of Japanese film, but became sick and passed the mantle on for some reason to Kuroki, not known for period pieces. Unfortunately his lack of experience shows.
A Look Back: Madame Butterfly (Japanese production)
The NY Times ran a typically overwrought article today entitled, “Reimagining ‘Madame Butterfly,’ With Asian Creators at the Helm“. It talks as usual of the piece as problematic and describes how the Asian community in the US is trying to address that. It mentions in passing a production by Japanese director Amon Miyamoto, which I discussed a few years back. I also touched upon Japan’s own relationship with the work, which remains one of the nation’s most frequently performed operas. Here is a rerun of that piece.
—————————————————————
May 26, 2020
The iconoclastic Japanese stage director Amon Miyamoto has a problem with Madame Butterfly. The stereotypical image of a spurned geisha? The sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl? A warped Western view of his country?
No, he feels that the opera mistreats the American.
The Sword of Doom (大菩薩峠 )
- 大菩薩峠 (The Sword of Doom)
6/27/23 (Tues)
Okamoto Kihachi is known for his offbeat approach to his material, so I wasn’t ready for this decidedly bleak 1966 film, which was apparently imposed upon him by the studio. The Japanese title Daibosatsu Toge (The Great Bodhisattva Pass), referring historically to an important mountain pass on the road to Edo, was also the title of an epic 41-volume novel that was published over a 30-year period and had already been filmed multiple times. The name of the peak, these days a relatively easy hike not far from Tokyo, implies the border between this world and a more exalted state and was presumably used in the book as a metaphor. It’s hard to judge that here since the intended trilogy ended with the first film after flopping in Japan (though it did better overseas). Okamoto soon returned to form in the wacky Kill!, but this work has gained in reputation over the years.
Samurai Spy (異聞猿飛佐助)
- 異聞猿飛佐助 (Samurai Spy)
6/25/23 (Sun), home, 4:30-6:15p
Shinoda Masahiro’s 1965 Ibun Sarutobi Sasuke (literally The Extraordinary Tale of Sarutobi Sasuke) revolves around the fictional ninja character who had already been a staple of manga, film and television for decades. Supposedly inspired by a real person (or persons), Sasuke is the most famous member of an invented group of ten ninja who sided with the Toyotomi clan in its unsuccessful battle against the Shogun. He is often portrayed with magical powers and is sometimes said to have been raised by apes – Sarutobi means “leaping monkey” or “flying monkey”. The English title is misleading in that respect since the subject is really ninja, but it falls in line with the predilection for the word “samurai” those days in other drastically renamed Japanese period films (Samurai Rebellion, Samurai Vendetta, Vendetta for a Samurai). That’s Hollywood, I guess.
sekenbanashi 