An Actor's Revenge (1963)
(Yukinojô henge)
Country: JAP
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 113m
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao
Synopsis:
A prodigious Kabuki actor specialising in women's roles comes to a provincial town and feels compelled to exact vengeance on the three men responsible for his parents' deaths years before. The beautiful daughter of one of them falls in love with him and is both the instrument and unfortunate collateral of this revenge.
Review:
A film which evokes works such as Shakespeare's The Tempest and Bergman's The Virgin Spring in its 'revenge served cold' narrative, while at the same time having a distinctly Japanese form and perspective (interesting to note that apart from the culturally specific attractiveness the actor holds for two beautiful female characters, the thieves in the story donate their takings to the starving poor who are suffering from a disastrous rice harvest). Ichikawa adopts a decidedly theatrical mise en scène, with the screen twice emulating the identically proportioned proscenium with curtain running across, overwhelming use of interiors and studio exteriors, and lighting that masks and forms its own vignettes within the frame. It is a tragic but oddly unaffecting tale, stylised in its direction of action and casting Hasegawa as both actor and thief/observer, who chafes at not being so attractive himself, shorn of the mystique and charisma afforded by the other's thespian powers. Perhaps they are emblems for the film's director and his eternal story.
(Yukinojô henge)
Country: JAP
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 113m
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao
Synopsis:
A prodigious Kabuki actor specialising in women's roles comes to a provincial town and feels compelled to exact vengeance on the three men responsible for his parents' deaths years before. The beautiful daughter of one of them falls in love with him and is both the instrument and unfortunate collateral of this revenge.
Review:
A film which evokes works such as Shakespeare's The Tempest and Bergman's The Virgin Spring in its 'revenge served cold' narrative, while at the same time having a distinctly Japanese form and perspective (interesting to note that apart from the culturally specific attractiveness the actor holds for two beautiful female characters, the thieves in the story donate their takings to the starving poor who are suffering from a disastrous rice harvest). Ichikawa adopts a decidedly theatrical mise en scène, with the screen twice emulating the identically proportioned proscenium with curtain running across, overwhelming use of interiors and studio exteriors, and lighting that masks and forms its own vignettes within the frame. It is a tragic but oddly unaffecting tale, stylised in its direction of action and casting Hasegawa as both actor and thief/observer, who chafes at not being so attractive himself, shorn of the mystique and charisma afforded by the other's thespian powers. Perhaps they are emblems for the film's director and his eternal story.
(Yukinojô henge)
Country: JAP
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 113m
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao
Synopsis:
A prodigious Kabuki actor specialising in women's roles comes to a provincial town and feels compelled to exact vengeance on the three men responsible for his parents' deaths years before. The beautiful daughter of one of them falls in love with him and is both the instrument and unfortunate collateral of this revenge.
Review:
A film which evokes works such as Shakespeare's The Tempest and Bergman's The Virgin Spring in its 'revenge served cold' narrative, while at the same time having a distinctly Japanese form and perspective (interesting to note that apart from the culturally specific attractiveness the actor holds for two beautiful female characters, the thieves in the story donate their takings to the starving poor who are suffering from a disastrous rice harvest). Ichikawa adopts a decidedly theatrical mise en scène, with the screen twice emulating the identically proportioned proscenium with curtain running across, overwhelming use of interiors and studio exteriors, and lighting that masks and forms its own vignettes within the frame. It is a tragic but oddly unaffecting tale, stylised in its direction of action and casting Hasegawa as both actor and thief/observer, who chafes at not being so attractive himself, shorn of the mystique and charisma afforded by the other's thespian powers. Perhaps they are emblems for the film's director and his eternal story.