- わが青春に悔なし (No Regrets For Our Youth)
11/20/20 (Fri)
This 1946 film, made under the watch of Occupation censors, was Kurosawa Akira’s first postwar work and one of his only films to focus on a woman. Continue reading
Crazed Fruit (狂った果実)
- 狂った果実 (Crazed Fruit)
1/5/21 (Tues)
Nakahira Ko’s seminal 1956 film, which put the so-called taiyozoku (太陽族) or “sun tribe” on the map, is essentially Japan’s Look Back in Anger, a sensationalist look at disaffected youth in the postwar era that electrified the staid Japanese film world. It was adapted by Ishihara Shintaro from his novelette, which was bundled with two similar stories that were all made into films the same year (this being by far the best). The series includes the notorious Season of the Sun (太陽の季節), known infamously for the scene in which the main character slams his erect organ through the paper shoji screen. The title of that story led an interviewer to refer in an article to the Sun Tribe, a label that came to define a generation. (The story is alluded to in this film in the boat’s English name, Sun Season.) Ishihara makes a brief appearance in the film as one of a group of thugs, but more important was his insistence that the filmmakers cast his younger brother Yujiro, creating a legend.
High and Low (天国と地獄)
- 天国と地獄 (High and Low)
11/14/20 (Sat), Tokyo
This 1963 Kurosawa work is really two films. In the first half, a well off industrialist (Mifune Toshiro) is battling for control of a major shoe company with other board members who want to cut corners on product quality for greater profit. The industrialist refuses to give in and throws his entire fortune into a secret deal that will give him a majority stake.
Just when that deal is set to go through, he receives a call that his son has been kidnapped. Frantically, he agrees to pay the enormous ransom with the money he had gathered despite knowing that this will ruin him financially. Then unexpectedly the son wanders in. It turns out that the kidnapper has mistakenly taken the chauffeur’s son instead. The industrialist is now faced with a moral dilemma: does he save the boy at devastating cost to himself, or save his own family from a bleak future? Continue reading
Stray Dog (野良犬)
- 野良犬 (Stray Dog)
11/13/20 (Fri), Tokyo
Two veterans of the recently ended war, we learn, had their backpacks stolen when they were younger. One channeled his anger into a desire to help the world and has become a policeman. The other let his anger destroy him and has become a criminal. That thin line between “stray dog” and “mad dog” is the film’s theme in a nutshell.
Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949) is nominally a detective story, a stylish film noir, but it digs much deeper. Continue reading
Calamity Jane (1963 TV version)
- Calamity Jane (1963 TV version)
11/9/20 (Mon), YouTube
Thirty-year-old Carol Burnett had just performed in the stage adaptation of the Doris Day film musical in Kansas City when CBS scooped her up for a television version. This marked her television special debut, but with a Tony nomination (Once Upon a Mattress) and Emmy Award already under her belt at this point, she was completely at home. Plus she appeared here with most of the co-stars from the stage production, giving it a real theatrical feel.
The show itself is no great shakes, an obvious (and inferior) rip-off of Annie Get Your Gun with songs that, while fun, are pale imitations of infinitely better numbers like “Anything You Can Do” and Oklahoma‘s “(Everything’s Up to Date in) Kansas City”. The story would never pass muster today with the woman ultimately seeking a man; the stage version never seems to have made it to Broadway and is unlikely to do so without significant rewriting, though it’s popular in the UK. But it doesn’t aspire to profundity, just entertainment, and it easily passes that test with its Wild West setting, unflagging high spirits, and boisterous star cowgirl role.
Noh: Kiyotsune, Tatsuta, Kumasaka (清経, 竜田, 熊坂)
- Noh: 清経, 竜田, 熊坂 (Kiyotsune, Tatsuta, Kumasaka)
11/8/20 (Sun), Tokyo
Today’s shows, appropriately enough, were all pieces set in autumn. Having seen shows by the Kanze, Kita and Hosho schools in recent weeks, I added Konparu to the list today, though without knowing it until after the fact. The theater had a dismal showing at maybe 10-20% capacity. I was furious to see that the singers wore masks hanging loosely over their faces. I really don’t want to be reminded of this virus while I’m watching a 15th-century play. If I had known that was the case, I wouldn’t have shown up. I’m definitely going to call beforehand and check that the next time. Continue reading
Sanze Tangen and the Million-Ryo Pot (丹下左膳余話 百萬両の壺)
- 丹下左膳余話 百萬両の壺 (Sanze Tangen and the Million-Ryo Pot)
11/1/20 (Sun), Tokyo
The Tokyo International Film Festival is featuring a special section on director Yamanaka Sadao, a prolific film director from the 1930s who tragically died at age 28. He made over two dozen films in a brief period at a pace of 4-5 per year, but only three survive, all of which are highly regarded. That makes it easy to do a retrospective of his career, and all three have been digitally cleaned up for the occasion. That includes one of my all-time favorite Japanese films, Humanity and Paper Balloons. Today was the oldest of the surviving films, dating from 1935, when sound was just taking hold in Japan. The theater is not practicing social distancing, so we’re back to crowded seats (the theater was around 60% full even for an old flick readily available on YouTube). I guess I should be careful what I wish for, especially since everyone was concentrated in the center. Still, it was good to be in a packed house again.
Kabuki: Sogoro the Fishmonger, The Sword Thief (魚屋宗五郎、太刀盗人)
- Kabuki: 魚屋宗五郎、太刀盗人 (Sogoro the Fishmonger, The Sword Thief)
10/17/20 (Sat), National Theater
I haven’t been to Kabuki since January because of this dumb pandemic as well as the ridiculously foreshortened offerings at the Kabukiza since their August reopening – they really expect us to spend ¥8,000 for shows lasting little more than half an hour?? They’re out of their minds. The National Theater restart is short by its standards but still a full 2.5 hours, making it a much more attractive option.* The morning show featured a newly written skit about a pandemic in Edo where actors sneak into a closed theater during a long shutdown and perform their favorite roles. I saw Koshiro, today’s performer, do something similar in Las Vegas years ago and am still traumatized. In contrast, the afternoon show featured the audience favorite Sogoro the Fishmonger as its main offering with the reliable Kikugoro, who’s been playing the role for decades. I haven’t seen it in years, so I decided to go for it. Continue reading
Noh: Mitsuyama, Shokun (三山, 昭君)
- Noh: 三山, 昭君 (Mitsuyama, Shokun)
10/11/20 (Sun), Tokyo
I’ve seen shows at the Kanze and Kita schools in recent weeks, so now it’s Hosho’s turn (partly because I couldn’t get tickets for the sold-out Kanze performance). The shows today were both relative rarities. Each has the unusual feature of two characters entering after the break rather than just the star. The tickets were 70-80% sold, meaning 35-40% of the theater. I’m not sure how they make money on these, but I’m glad they’re pushing ahead. Continue reading
A Cornered Rat Dreams of Cheese (窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る)
- 窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る (A Cornered Rat Dreams of Cheese)
10/5/20 (Mon), Tokyo
Yukisada Isao’s adaptation of a best-selling BL (boy’s love) manga. For the uninitiated, BL are comic series written by women and for women focused on love affairs among males, not necessarily gay. The former sub-genre is now a genre of its own and a full-fledged phenomenon. The idealized portrait of men falling for each other allows the overwhelmingly female readership to fantasize about sex while remaining apart from it. It shares that quality in a way with the all-female Takarazuka and all-male Kabuki theaters, where the knowledge that all characters are being played by performers of the same gender (and the restrictions that places on intimate scenes) ensures that love affairs remain in the realm of fancy. (A recent NHK television series featured a fervent BL fan who becomes disgusted when she discovers that her supposed boyfriend is gay – she can accept male-on-male sex only on the page. She eventually sees the error of her ways, of course, and they live happily ever after as best friends.) I was dragged by a friend to the theater, where I was the only male in the house as well as the only non-Asian. I pulled my mask up tight.
Noh: Teika, Sesshoseki (定家、殺生石)
- Noh: 定家、殺生石 (Teika, Sesshoseki)
10/3/20 (Sat), Tokyo
It was encouraging to see a nearly full house for live theater — that is, the available tickets (50% of capacity) were nearly sold out. People are definitely hungry for entertainment. Tokyo actually now allows shows to perform at full capacity, which some productions (such as the sold-out Japanese version of the musical Billy Elliot) are taking full advantage of. But the Noh world remains conservative and cautious, maybe because of the higher average age of the audience. Continue reading
Thunderstorm (雷雨, 1983 film)
- 雷雨 (Thunderstorm, 1983 film)
9/26/20 (Sat)
One of numerous film versions of Cao Yu’s seminal 1934 stage work. Sun Daolin (孫道臨), a major film star of the 1950s to 1970s, adapted, directed and starred in this 1983 version. The groundbreaking stage show was immensely influential in China as the first successful Western-style drama, helping to transform the entire course of Chinese theatrical history. The story comes off as melodramatic, involving as it does family struggles, class warfare (making it popular in the Communist years) and incest. But the characterizations are compelling, and the story flows nicely, though depending on one questionable coincidence.
sekenbanashi 