Kon Ichikawa

An Actor’s Revenge

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Kazuo Hasegawa as Yukinojo

“Stagey” is not usually a compliment when it comes to screen works. But it is in the case of 1963’s An Actor’s Revenge, a Japanese film combining the the dynamism of cinema with the intensity of the theatre experience. Before the action kicks off, a little on-screen note tells us that this was the 300th film performance of its star, Kazuo Hasegawa. Remarkably Hasegawa played exactly the same role when this film was first made in 1935. Housekeeping out of the way, enter the plot, which immerses us straight away in the film’s opening shot. Hasegawa plays an onnagato – a male kabuki actor who specialises in female roles – who is mid-performance … Read more

The Burmese Harp

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Mizushima as a monk

After a career banging out one makeweight movie after another, on the 27th go director Kon Ichikawa hit paydirt with The Burmese Harp. A box-office smash and critical hit at home in Japan and abroad, it propelled Ichikawa into the ranks of internationally celebrated Japanese directors, alongside Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi et al. It’s worth remembering the Japanese martial code before diving into this strangely meditative drama – death before dishonour, to boil it down – and that the surrender by the Japanese emperor in 1945 had been seen by many in the military as an act of treason. The film deals with that surrender and the acceptance, or lack of acceptance, of it. … Read more