Yutaro kodan / 遊太郎巷談 (1959)

Obscure Japanese Film #269

Raizo Ichikawa

Yutaro (Raizo Ichikawa), a prince whose father (also played by Ichikawa) was forced to commit suicide, masquerades as a ronin and uses his formidable skill with a sword to right a few wrongs he sees being perpetrated on his wanderings. One day, he takes an ornate box stolen by a pickpocket away from the thief and discovers that it contains a MacGuffin in the shape of a map. A disgraced clan are attempting to restore their fortunes but need the map to do it, so they enlist the help of the famous swordsman Hirate Miki (Kenjiro Uemura) to slay Yutaro. Meanwhile, Oyu (Masako Kishi) and Sayuri (Yoko Uraji) compete for Yutaro’s affections, but he seems more interested in Princess Tsu (Atsuko Kindaichi) even though she’s involved with the baddies…

This Daiei production was based on a novel by Renzaburo Shibata (1917-78), creator of the Nemuri Kyoshiro (or Sleepy Eyes of Death) series, the films of which also starred Raizo Ichikawa. The plot is pure hokum, but the film is well made, fast-paced and entertaining and looks a treat thanks largely to the superb widescreen black and white cinematography of veteran Kohei Sugiyama, who had shot such classics as A Page of Madness (1926) and Gate of Hell (1953). This was one of his final films before he passed away in 1960.

It’s difficult to think of anyone who looks more the part of the heroic samurai than Raizo Ichikawa does in this movie and the supporting cast also give a good account of themselves, especially Kenjiro Uemura, who manages to be even more dour than Shin Saburi in Hirate Miki (1951). 

Kenjiro Uemura

The female lead, Atsuko Kindaichi, was appearing in a period film for the first time here, having debuted as a Daiei ‘New Face’ in 1957 and been kept very busy since. In 1960 she was cast in Shunkai Mizuho’s Sure-sure, which involved a bed scene with Hiroshi Kawaguchi, so she refused to do it and quit the business. Few would blame for that, although I don’t think it was specifically because it was Kawaguchi…

Atsuko Kindaichi

Director Katsuhiko Tasaka was the younger brother of the better-known Tomotaka Tasaka and seems to have worked almost entirely in the chambara (sword fighting) genre. As this is pre-Yojimbo, there is no spurting blood or slashing sounds, just some rather clichéd music, but on the plus side, Tasaka delivers a memorably weird scene involving a giant talking Buddha statue and a dancing woman with impractically long sleeves.

A note on the title:

I’m not sure the film has an official English title, but it’s sometimes referred to as Yutaro’s Secret Story or Yutaro’s Secret Sword; the former seems to be a reasonable reflection of the Japanese title, in which 巷談 (kodan) is generally translated as ‘rumour’.

DVD at Amazon Japan (no English subtitles)

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Dedication of the Great Buddha / 大佛開眼 / Daibutsu kaigen (1952)

 Obscure Japanese Film #186

Kazuo Hasegawa and Machiko Kyo

 

Nara, the then-capital of Japan, in the year 745. Kunihito (Kazuo Hasegawa) is a sculptor of rare talent. One day, after completing a huge sand sculpture by a river, he is upset when the oblivious Mayame (Machiko Kyo) walks over it to fetch water. An argument ensues in which they throw water at each other before going their separate ways. Sometime later, Mayame’s dancing attracts the attention of the lecherous Ogusu (Kenjiro Uemura), who follows her into the forest and tries to rape her, but she’s saved in the nick of time by Kunihito, who happened to be passing by. As a result, she immediately falls in love with Kunihito and becomes his girlfriend.

 

Eitaro Ozawa

Kunihito is recruited by the hunchbacked Kimimaro (Eitaro Ozawa, in a rare sympathetic role), who has been tasked with constructing a huge statue of the Great Buddha at Kinsho-ji (now Todai-ji) Temple and needs an assistant. Later, when Lady Sakuyako (Mitsuko Mito) sees some of Kunihiko’s work, she insists that he make a statue of her. Mayame, jealous of all the attention Kunihito is paying to both projects, decides to get revenge by sabotaging the Buddha statue…

 

Mitsuko Mito

 

This Daiei production was based on a play by Hideo Nagata (1885-1949) first published in 1921. Mizoguchi’s The Love of Sumako the Actress (1947) had also been based on a Nagata play and, in fact, even featured Tomo’o Nagai in a small role as Nagata himself. I don’t know how it compares to the original, but Ryuichiro Yagi’s screenplay seems, frankly, rather ludicrous, so it’s no surprise that Yagi failed to have a very successful career as a screenwriter despite being a respected playwright himself. 

 

Machiko Kyo

 

Presumably, having happened in the distant past, the actual personalities surrounding the construction of the Great Buddha are a bit of a mystery, but I’m willing to bet they didn’t include a vain and silly woman who spends most of her time dancing around a forest and mooning after a sculptor. Machiko Kyo does her best, but this may well be the worst role of her career. A lot of scenes feel too drawn-out, especially those featuring Kyo blubbering, of which there are many. Such sentimental nonsense must have seemed out of date even in 1952 and is not helped any by Ikuma Dan’s clichéd score. Intended as a prestige production and optimistically submitted to Japan’s Festival of the Arts as well as Cannes, it deservedly won nothing, but luckily director Teinosuke Kinugasa, together with stars Kazuo Hasegawa and Machiko Kyo redeemed themselves with the following year’s far superior Gate of Hell.