An Actor's Revenge

Plot

In this renowned and classic Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa, the great Kabuki onnagata Kasuo Hasegawa celebrates his 300th film appearance in a role designed especially for him. One of the classic theater styles of Japan, Kabuki does not use women in female roles. Highly trained male actors, called "onnagata," perform in them, and are often more convincing as women than many women might be. In the story, set in 1836, Yukinojo (Kasuo Hasegawa) is an onnagata, travelling to Edo in feminine disguise. On his journey, he recognizes three ruthless merchants who ruined his father's business, driving him to suicide. Pledged to revenge his father's death, he follows them, and with the help of a mysterious bandit martial artist named Yamitaro (also Hasegawa), fulfills his pledge, even though this means the destruction of one of the merchant's innocent daughters, who has fallen in love with him. Actor Hasegawa performed these same roles in a 1935 film version of this same story, directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, who consulted on this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Review

A visual stunner and a flat-out masterpiece, Kon Ichikawa's 1963 film is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest films to come out of Japan. A remake of a 1935 film by Teinosuke Kinugasa, An Actor's Revenge tells the story of a Kabuki actor who, years after his father's death, finds the culprits and seeks his revenge. With an actor as its protagonist, an unapologetically stagebound story, and a deliberately affected visual scheme, the movie's preoccupation with performance and theater -- and how the latter's vocabulary can be used to expand film language -- is evident. Asides, soliloquies, and expository dialogue abound; the convoluted melodrama, underscored by gender-bending, crudely comical minor characters and identity switches, recalls Shakespeare. Visually, the movie's debt to theater is even more apparent. Renowned as a visual stylist and perfectionist, Ichikawa sets out to divorce film from its obligation to verisimilitude, conceiving the widescreen frame as a proscenium arch and arranging most of his compositions against a backdrop of darkness. The expressionistic use of light, shadow, and color is constantly inventive and masterful: characters emerge from complete darkness lit by lone spotlights; pronounced lighting shifts signal emotional fluctuations; and swordfights are seen only as dances of swirling, reflected light. Pushing the limits of film language, Ichikawa reimagines mise-en-scène as a conduit for pure expression rather than a means to represent reality. Brandishing Ichikawa's trademark irony, the movie never seeps under the skin -- it always stands at a distance. Still, An Actor's Revenge is never less than aesthetically brilliant, a beautiful and aloof object of contemplation. ~ Elbert Ventura, Rovi

Cast

• Kazuo Hasegawa - Yukinojo Nakamura/Yamitaro the Thief
• Fujiko Yamamoto - Ohatsu
• Ayako Wakao - Namiji
• Raizo Ichikawa - Hirutaro
• Shintaro Katsu - Hojin

Ganjiro Nakamura - Sansai Dobe; Eiji Funakoshi - Heima Kadokura; Jun Hamamura - Isshosai; Chitose Maki - Townswoman; Kikue Mori - Cruel Old Woman; Eijiro Yanagi - Hiromi-ya; Chusha Ichikawa; Narutoshi Hayashi

Credit

Yoshio Ueno - Costume Designer, Kon Ichikawa - Director, Masako Yagi - Composer (Music Score), Yasushi Akutagawa - Composer (Music Score), Tamekichi Mochizuki - Composer (Music Score), Yoshinobu Nishioka - Production Designer, Setsuo Kobayashi - Cinematographer, Masaichi Nagata - Producer, Otokichi Mikami - Screen Story, Daisuke Ito - Screenwriter, Teinosuke Kinugasa - Screenwriter, Natto Wada - Screenwriter

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