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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Stranger by the Lake (L’Inconnu du lac)

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  • L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake)

8/1/25 (Fri)

A recent retrospective of the work of French writer/director Alain Guiraudie in connection with his latest release, Misericordia (2024), resurrected this 2013 film. The isolated scenes that I had watched on Criterion seemed like gratuitous porn disguised as suspense, which dampened my interest, but recommendations from friends made me reconsider. Continue reading →

The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur)

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  • Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear)

7/21/25 (Mon)

I finally got around to seeing Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 classic after enjoying the jaw-dropping US remake Sorcerer nearly a year earlier. This version was equally spectacular and intense but differed in certain ways (Friedkin always insisted that he based his film on the original novel).

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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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I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

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  • I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

3/17/26 (Tues)

Mervyn LeRoy’s well intentioned 1932 crime film was the industry’s third biggest earner that year after Gold Diggers of 1933 (which he also directed) and 42nd Street (which he was supposed to direct). It was based on the previous year’s same-titled autobiography (the state, i.e., …Georgia Chain Gang!, was removed for commercial and political reasons), though naturally taking certain liberties with the character and story.

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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 →