6/6/25 (Fri), home, 7:15-9:00p
Uchida’s 1962 surrealistic film is based on the popular Bunraku and Kabuki classic commonly known as Kuzunoha. The entire movie is as shape shifting as the foxes within it, moving from semi-realistic to otherworldly to a Kabuki stage. Continue reading
6/3/25 (Tues)
Uchida Tomu’s 1955 film was his comeback after a 13-year absence from Japanese film. He had reportedly raised suspicions in the movie world for his long stay in China and reported enthusiasm for the Mao regime (despite his active support for the Japanese military during the war – his convictions don’t seem very deep). But he had some big hitters behind him, including explicit support in the opening credits from superstar directors Ozu Yasujiro, Shimizu Hiroshi, and Ito Daisuke (the poster also throws in Mizoguchi Kenji). He supposedly promised to behave in crafting this film, and the content is largely innocuous on the surface. It is based on a popular silent film, Dochu Hiki (now lost), by his mentor Inoue Kintaro. The two leads in that film were happily given roles in the remake: Tsukigata Ryunosuke in a great turn as the suspected thief and Watanabe Atsushi as an official in the comic tea party scene.
5/27/25 (Tues)
Uchida Tomu’s 1959 film, based loosely on playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s 18th-century puppet classic Courier from Hell (冥途の飛脚 ). The English title is misleading: it is not a love affair involving Chikamatsu, but a play devised by Chikamatsu about a doomed love affair in Osaka. (The Japanese title is a more straightforward The Story of a Naniwa Love Affair, using the old name for the city.) As with the similarly title-challenged The Chikamatsu Story, the marketers seem to think that the Chikamatsu name is going to be an attraction for foreigners, who in fact are unlikely to have heard the name at all. The film needs better marketers.
12/6/24 (Fri)
Uchida Tomu’s 1960 film draws liberally from the much-revived Meiji-era Kabuki classic Kagotsurube (1888), the story of a lonely pockmarked man whose desperation to be loved makes him an easy mark for unscrupulous people, leading ultimately to tragedy. (The Kabuki was itself based on a real-life incident.) Uchida veers from the popular tale in significant ways that make for an interesting study. A more literal translation of the Japanese title would be something like, “The Story of the Haunted Sword: Glittering Yoshiwara and the Mass Slaying”. (Hyakunin-giri or “mass slaying” literally means slashing 100 persons but is simply meant to indicate a large number of people. The phrase is known for its unfortunate use as a killing contest during Japan’s invasion of China, about which the less said the better. More happily, it can also be a sexual term meaning to bed dozens of people.) The English title is lame: the guy is no hero, and the story involves a street prostitute thrown into the world of courtesans, not quite a red light district.
sekenbanashi 