Obscure Japanese Film #86
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| Nobuko Otowa |
Chojuro Kawarasaki) who has been promised a new temple by the local lord for supposedly changing the sex of the lord’s heir from female to male by means of prayer while the child was still in the womb. However, Prince Hayakumo (Kunitaro Kawarasaki) suspects Narukami of being a Tartuffe-like charlatan and fears that providing a new temple for him will anger a group of monks from a different sect, so he cancels the project.
Prince Hayakumo (Hayakumo = fast spider, hence the cool kimono)
In revenge, Narukami creates a drought by imprisoning the dragon god in a waterfall. After 100 days without rain, the crops have failed and the peasants are revolting, so something must be done. It is said that the reading of a certain scroll will break Narukami’s spell, but the only person who might be able to decipher the ancient characters is Lady Taema (Nobuko Otowa). Although in reality she also has no clue how to read it, Taema keeps this to herself and decides to use her womanly charms against the celibate priest instead…
Chojuro Kawarasaki flanked by Shinosuke Ichikawa and Taiji Tonoyama
Kozaburo Yoshimura’s film was made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Zenshinza, a Tokyo-based kabuki troupe, and many Zenshinza actors are featured among the cast, including Chojuro Kawarasaki as Narukami. However, this was not the first time Zenshinza had been involved in a film project (the 1937 picture Humanity and Paper Balloons being another example), and not all of the actors featured here were members of the troupe. The most familiar faces to film fans will probably be Nobuko Otowa and Taiji Tonoyama, both favourites of filmmaker Kaneto Shindo, who wrote the witty screenplay for this adaptation.
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| Shinosuke Ichikawa (left) and Taiji Tonoyama (right) |
Tonoyama and Shinosuke Ichikawa (in his only film role; presumably a member of Zenshinza) are great fun as Hakkun and Kokkun, bickering apprentice monks/servants to Narukami who are more interested in alcohol, women and forbidden snack foods than spiritual training. This is purely speculative, but I wonder whether they might have inspired Kurosawa to create the two squabbling peasants played by Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara in The Hidden Fortress (1958), which later famously inspired George Lucas to create C-3PO and R2-D2 in Star Wars. We’ll probably never know, but the date fits and it’s highly likely that Kurosawa would have seen The Beauty and the Water Dragon.
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| Nobuko Otowa |
Considering its basis in one of the canonical kabuki plays and the fact that a kabuki company was heavily involved in the production, it’s somewhat surprising that director Kozaburo Yoshimura’s film is not in the least precious, even at one point featuring a clearly anachronistic dance which looks like something you might see in a 1950s nightclub, but probably not in the Heian era, during which this story is set. However, it’s worth noting that Zenshinza were one of the more progressive kabuki troupes at the time, featuring as they did a number of female performers when the majority of such theatre companies still used only male actors even in the female roles.
The film is bookended by scenes of the play being performed in traditional style in a theatre, but the bulk of the film abandons the kabuki style and features more naturalistic acting. In Yoshimura’s version, The Beauty and the Water Dragon is very much a comedy, and I would assume that it was traditionally played straighter than it is here. In any case, of the 10 Yoshimura films I’ve seen so far, this is my joint favourite alongside his 1951 version of The Tale of Genji, and in my opinion it’s a very fine film quite unlike anything else I’ve seen. Special mention should be made of the beautiful cinematography by Yoshio Miyajima, who later became Masaki Kobayashi’s right-hand man.
Note about the title:
The complete title is 歌舞伎十八番「鳴神」美女と海龍 / Kabuki juhachiban ‘Narukami’ Bijo to umi ryu, which translates as Kabuki 18 "Narukami": The Beauty and the Water Dragon (the ‘18’ refers to the fact that Narukami is one of the 18 kabuki plays selected by top kabuki actor Danjuro Ichikawa VII [1791-1859] as having special merit).
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