11/17/19 (Sun), Umewaka Noh Theater (Tokyo)
The pamphlet for today’s two shows say that they share an ambiguous ending that is supposed to make us wonder what happens to the characters thereafter. Both are also steeped in references to Chinese poetry, and I noted that they each refer in passing to the ancient Shirakawa Barrier in Fukushima, an oft-used place name in poetry and Noh plays that is associated with autumn.
10/27/19 (Sun)
Having recently seen the fun An Osaka Tale, I wanted to check out more of director Yoshimura Kozaburo’s work, and this was an obvious first stop. It is often held to be one of the finest of all Japanese films of the 1940s.
The 1947 film is a Chekhovian portrait of an aristocratic family unwilling to face their decline in postwar society. This is not a traditional Japanese household: it is a formerly titled family living in a palatial Western-style home with a father who studied painting in Paris, a son who plays classical piano and a daughter who (at least in the course of the film) wears only Western clothing. The family appears to have lived in the past mainly off its inherited wealth and property. But times have changed: it survived the war by borrowing money from a slimy businessman who profited in the munitions trade by using the family name, and is now facing collapse in the wake of land reforms, the abolition of the aristocracy and new taxes enforced by the Occupation government (still in power when the movie was made). Continue reading
I see where the stage version of Mary Poppins has returned to the West End to largely favorable reviews. It’s hard to know how it will fare given its unexpectedly short run last time around; three years would qualify as a hit for most shows, but hopes had been riding particularly high for Poppins given the potent title, family-friendly content and combined power of mega-producers Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, who must have thought they had another The Lion King or Phantom (respectively) on their hands. Still, it did well enough, and it’s no surprise to see them coming back for another try.
I was less taken by the show, at least in its original production, due to its ham-handed approach to the material. In trying to bring together the original British novels and Disney’s lighter film version, the show loses its way entirely. Continue reading
10/17/19 (Wed), Tokyo
Lee Sang-il’s 2018 film opens with the murder of an innocent couple in their own home by a drifter, who paints the character for “rage” (怒) on their wall before escaping. This is followed by three unrelated stories in Tokyo, Chiba and Okinawa featuring drifters who could all conceivably be the killer. The film is on the surface a suspense tale keeping us guessing which one is the villain, but its real theme involves the nature of trust and mistrust – “Doubt” would actually be a better title than “Rage”, which doesn’t quite make sense in context. Continue reading
10/13/18 (Sun), Tokyo
A highly entertaining piece of 1957 devised by Mizoguchi Kenji from a 17th-century tale and ably taken over after his death by Yoshimura Kozaburo. It was reminiscent of Mizoguchi’s Chikamatsu Story: the lead was a stingy businessman ultimately undermined by his own stubbornness, and Kagawa Kyoko was a put-upon daughter who gets the poor clerk in the end. But this was a comedic approach to the material, which, though not as deep, worked wonderfully on its own terms.
10/12/18 (Sat), Tokyo
A beautiful meditative film of 2018 whereby the tea ceremony (“the way of tea”) serves as a metaphor for several zen-based ideas: that the meaning of things becomes evident only over time, that we should feel rather than analyze, that we should enjoy every instant in life as an experience that will never occur again.
10/11/18 (Fri), Tokyo
Kinoshita Keisuke’s hit film of 1951 was Japan’s first full-length color film, and the director reportedly created the plot around the need to film much of it outside for technical reasons. Continue reading
10/6/19 (Sun), Tokyo
Veteran Japanese director Miyamoto Amon takes on the Puccini opera. Continue reading
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.
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.
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.)
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
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