Eephus
Footballguy
An Actor's Revenge (1962)
Director Kon Ichikawa was a contemporary of Kurosawa's and a partner in Kurosawa's ill-fated Club of Four Knights production company. Ichikawa's best known film is Tokyo Olympiad, his documentary of the 1964 summer games and probably the finest of that limited sub-genre. The word iconic is overused but some shots from Tokyo Olympiad fit the bill. You've undoubtedly seen some of Ichikawa's work if you've watched Olympic coverage in the past sixty years,
The plot of An Actor's Revenge is right there in the title: a kabuki actor seeks revenge on three corrupt merchants who drove his parents to suicide. The way the actor and Ichikawa approach things is anything but straightforward. First off, the actor is a female impersonator who stays in character for most of the movie including the scenes with his love interest, the mistress of the shogun. The same actor who plays the main actor also plays another character. There is a lot of political intrigue and line blurring between the theater and reality. I'm sure I lost some meaning due to unfamiliarity with Japanese traditions and culture. The print I watched was poorly subtitled which didn't help either.
Even though I was sometimes confused, I was always amazed by this remarkable looking film. It's beautifully shot entirely on a soundstage with vivid colors contrasting with inky blacks and rich browns. Ichikawa used more closeups than the Kurosawa films I watched this month. He often composes shots asymmetrically with characters placed near one edge of the frame--I guess all movies do this to some extent but I've rarely seen it done so prominently. The infrequent action scenes were shot and cut in an expressionist fashion that reminded me of manga with brief glimpses of characters and their weapons against a pitch black backdrop.
Director Kon Ichikawa was a contemporary of Kurosawa's and a partner in Kurosawa's ill-fated Club of Four Knights production company. Ichikawa's best known film is Tokyo Olympiad, his documentary of the 1964 summer games and probably the finest of that limited sub-genre. The word iconic is overused but some shots from Tokyo Olympiad fit the bill. You've undoubtedly seen some of Ichikawa's work if you've watched Olympic coverage in the past sixty years,
The plot of An Actor's Revenge is right there in the title: a kabuki actor seeks revenge on three corrupt merchants who drove his parents to suicide. The way the actor and Ichikawa approach things is anything but straightforward. First off, the actor is a female impersonator who stays in character for most of the movie including the scenes with his love interest, the mistress of the shogun. The same actor who plays the main actor also plays another character. There is a lot of political intrigue and line blurring between the theater and reality. I'm sure I lost some meaning due to unfamiliarity with Japanese traditions and culture. The print I watched was poorly subtitled which didn't help either.
Even though I was sometimes confused, I was always amazed by this remarkable looking film. It's beautifully shot entirely on a soundstage with vivid colors contrasting with inky blacks and rich browns. Ichikawa used more closeups than the Kurosawa films I watched this month. He often composes shots asymmetrically with characters placed near one edge of the frame--I guess all movies do this to some extent but I've rarely seen it done so prominently. The infrequent action scenes were shot and cut in an expressionist fashion that reminded me of manga with brief glimpses of characters and their weapons against a pitch black backdrop.
