The Old Bear Hunter / Matagi (1982)

Obscure Japanese Film #3

A film from 1982 about an old hunter trying to kill an especially large and vicious black bear sounds likely to be another schlocky Jaws rip-off in the manner of Grizzly (1976). However, the story actually owes more to Moby-Dick in that Heizo, the hunter in question, was attacked by the bear some years previously and left with a bad facial scar as a result. As played by Ko Nishimura, he seems too level-headed to seek revenge on an animal for this reason alone, but further motivation is provided as the film progresses. One of the many surprising things about The Old Bear Hunter is that the thinness of the plot turns out to be something of an asset, providing a decent enough excuse for a film which is as much a fascinating portrait of the little-known matagi as it is an adventure movie.

The matagi, traditional hunters often accompanied by specially-trained Akita dogs, have been active in northern Honshu for over 400 years hunting bear and other game. They consider these as gifts from the mountain gods, and are careful not to waste any part of the animal or kill more than they need.

The film opens with a sequence on a snow-covered mountainside in which a bear is shot dead and the hide removed. This appears to have been done for real, and The Old Bear Hunter is certainly a problematic film for animal lovers. As in the case of the kangaroo hunt in the Australian film Wake in Fright, the filmmakers perhaps attempted to justify this scene by saying that the hunt was not staged specifically for them, and they simply received permission to film a hunt that was going to happen anyway. In any case, it certainly lends the picture a remarkable degree of authenticity. Even more uncomfortable to watch are the scenes of Heizo training his Akita – he slashes at it with a bear claw, force-feeds it bear meat smeared with big dollops of bear fat, and even dons an entire bear hide before attacking the hapless dog. Worse still, there is a sequence featuring a matagi dog-training competition in which a number of Akita are forced to attack a chained bear. This scene goes on for some time and there is clearly no fakery involved. However, if one can get past the brutality of these sequences, this is a thoroughly absorbing and extremely well-made film.

This is also a film which shows, rather than tells, and is therefore light on dialogue, something which works very much in its favour. Director Toshio Goto makes full use of his snow-laden, mountainous locations to often breathtaking effect, and the fact that nothing appears to have been shot in a studio lends a sense of documentary-like realism, while the esoteric details about bear bile, etc, suggest that the ways of the matagi were thoroughly researched in advance. Goto also skillfully manages to avoid lapsing into melodrama and, when the climactic battle between old man and bear finally arrives, it’s not only entirely convincing, but steers well clear of the sense of triumphant revenge found in many ‘bad animal’ movies.

The Old Bear Hunter was Goto’s first film as director. Born in 1938, he worked as an assistant director under Satsuo Yamamoto in the ‘70s. On IMDb, his filmography has been mistakenly merged with another Toshio Goto who worked as an editor on some of Kurosawa’s early films. However, the fact that he subsequently made a Russian-Japanese co-production set in the wilderness of Sibera entitled Pod Severnym Siyaniyem / Under Aurora immediately brings to mind Kurosawa’s 1975 film Dersu Uzala.

As Heizo, the diminutive Ko Nishimura is miscast in a role that would have been better suited to a more physically powerful actor such as Toshiro Mifune (perhaps Mifune turned it down). Considering this, he does very well in the part and deserves respect for taking on what must have been a physically arduous role at the age of 59. Nishimura made over 200 movies beginning in 1953, and will be a familiar face to most Japanese film fans, popping up as he does in parts large and small in such classics as Sword of Doom and Red Beard.

If it were not for the scenes of animal cruelty, I would wholeheartedly recommend this film to anyone.  

The Life of a Horse-Trader / Bakuro Ichidai (1951)

Obscure Japanese Film #2

Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura

One year after Rashomon, Daiei Studios decided to reunite stars Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo and Takashi Shimura in The Life of a Horse-Trader, based on a novel by Masao Nakayama. Although the film has little else in common with Rashomon, it should delight fans of Kurosawa regulars Mifune and Shimura and, as a bonus, features another of that director’s favourites, Bokuzen Hidari – he of the Noh-mask-like face. The film also features an excellent score by Kurosawa’s regular composer, Fumio Hayasaka.

Set in Hokkaido just before the arrival of automobiles, it tells the story of Yonetaro Katayama (Mifune), a horse-trader who is good at his job but much given to drinking, fighting and gambling. As a result of these pastimes, he neglects his wife and young child and is in an ongoing feud with Rokutaro Kosaka (Shimura), a carriage-driver turned money-lender with political ambitions.  However, when his wife dies, Yonetaro must change his ways in order to care for his son. Meanwhile, Yuki (Kyo), who works as a waitress at the inn he frequents, is in love with him and patiently waiting for him to notice.

Although The Life of a Horse-Trader is an old-fashioned and sentimental drama, the use of real locations alongside meticulously detailed sets lend it a welcome air of realism unusual for 1951. Mifune gives one of his most committed performances outside of a Kurosawa film and, in one memorable sequence, even performs in three bouts of sumo one after the other to great effect. Equally pleasing is the fact that Shimura has one of his best roles as the villain of the piece, who may not be quite such a bastard after all. Kyo is less well-served as her role is not as interesting, but she makes the most of it and has some amusing moments.

Director Keigo Kimura seems forgotten today, but the only other film I’ve seen by him (Diary of a Mad Old Man) is also good, and this one is extremely well-made, with first-class black-and-white cinematography by Shigeyoshi Mine.

A word of warning for horse-lovers: there is a scene in which Mifune and his son are encouraging their sick horse to stand up, and we see the horse flailing around. There is then a very odd cut and the scene ends abruptly, after which we are told that said horse did get back on its hooves after all. I suspect the reason for the strange cut is that they had the horse tied down or something like that. Worse still, there is a horse racing sequence in which a horse takes a tumble in such a way it made me gasp, and I very much doubt it could have survived.

Aside from the horse abuse, The Life of a Horse-Trader is an entertaining film which should be of great interest to fans of Mifune and Shimura at least. It must have been successful at the time, as there was a sequel the following year (albeit one made by a different director and without Mifune, Shimura or Kyo), plus a remake in 1963 with Rentaro Mikuni.  

Funnily enough, the film has a remarkably similar ending to the one in The Saga of Tanegashima (see previous post). In typical Japanese-film style, it ends with the parting of two of the main characters, who shout each other’s names over and over again as each recedes into the distance.  

The Saga of Tanegashima / Teppo Denraiki (1968)

Obscure Japanese Film #1

This is an interesting film about the introduction of the firearm to Japan. American actor Rick Jason plays Pinto, a Portuguese captain whose ship is caught in a storm and badly damaged off the coast of Japan in 1543, when Japan was still officially closed to foreigners. As a result, he is forced to make his way to shore and ask the local lord for permission to stay until his ship can be repaired. Having never seen one before, the lord becomes interested in Pinto’s musket and asks him to demonstrate how it works. Pinto obliges and then offers the weapon as a gift in exchange for a safe harbour. The lord instructs his best blacksmith and weapon-maker, Kinbei (Eijiro Tono), to take the gun apart, find out how it works and duplicate it. Meanwhile, Pinto falls in love with Kinbei’s daughter, Wakasa (Ayako Wakao).

I’m not aware of any other films telling the story of how guns arrived in Japan, so the film has that on its side to begin with. There are some surprisingly lengthy, detailed scenes showing Kinbei’s attempts to reverse-engineer the musket, which involves a great deal of hammering red hot pieces of iron into shape. These parts look very authentic and I found them quite interesting. As a matter of fact, the film probably has a potential fan-base consisting of blacksmiths, antique-weapons fanciers and fans of the TV show Forged in Fire. I appreciate it when scenes of this kind are not faked or skipped over in films – a particular favourite of mine is the long scene in Le Trou where the prisoners knock a hole in the floor.

Japanese films which require Western actors in major parts have often had difficulty in finding good ones, as anyone who has seen Masahiro Shinoda’s Silence will be able to attest.  However, in this case, that is not a problem as Rick Jason turns out to be pretty decent as Captain Pinto in an Errol-Flynn kind of way, even if I had never heard of him beforehand. A quick bit of research reveals that he was an American TV star who had played a couple of leads in very minor films in the late ‘50s. I cannot believe that anyone in Japan had ever heard of him, so it was very generous of them to give him top billing over Japan’s major star Ayako Wakao. Or perhaps somebody had persuaded the Japanese that Jason was a big star in America – it’s not like they could Google him in those days.

In my opinion, Wakao is one of the most talented and versatile actresses in film, not to mention one of the most beautiful. Watch her performances in Satsuo Yamamoto’s Freezing Point, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame, Keigo Kimura’s Diary of a Mad Old Man, and the films of Yasuzo Masumura and you will see that she was much more than a pretty face and could portray any type of personality with no apparent effort. While she has little to challenge her in The Saga of Tanegashima playing a traditional Japanese woman who finds herself falling in love with a foreigner against her better judgement,  she nevertheless gives her usual flawless performance.

The other main actor is Eijiro Tono, a familiar character actor who must have been thrilled to be given such a juicy role at the age of 60. If you’ve seen any Japanese films from the ‘50s or ‘60s at all, you’ve probably seen Tono, so frequently does his ugly mug turn up. He was especially good at playing characters you’d like to push over a cliff, and initially he seems to be one of those in this film. However, Kinbei turns out to be the most interesting character as he’s the one who undergoes a change and begins to question the wisdom of his actions.

Having watched a lot of Japanese films, I’ve noticed that sad endings are far more common than in Hollywood ones, and this can only be because Japanese audiences prefer them for some reason. It would take someone with more insight than myself to explain the reasons for that, but I’m convinced that a Hollywood studio would never have gone with the ending used here. This film could easily have had a happy ending, but a perfunctory tragedy occurs whose only purpose seems to have been to provide the sad ending Japanese audiences seem to crave. These endings often feel just as contrived as the upbeat ones in Hollywood films can do, and frequently involve somebody dying before their time or people who love each other being forced to part, and are usually accompanied by a lot of pointless shouting of the departed / departing one’s name. Unfortunately, this film is no exception and the ending spoiled it a bit for me, which is a shame as I otherwise greatly enjoyed this film.

The director was Kazuo Mori, who does not seem to be a great artist by any means, but certainly knew how to make a movie. I’ve seen one other by him – A Killer’s Key – which was also well-made, although I enjoyed it less as the script was ridiculous. He also directed the first Zatoichi film.