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An Actor's Revenge on DVD (1962)

An Actor's Revenge cover art
Average rating: 70%
114415132079
3.5
from 152 members
 
Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Studio: BFI VIDEO
Run time: 108 mins
Certificate: PG
User collections: 50 auteurs, 50 great films
Genres: Action/Adventure, World Cinema
Languages: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Released: 27/01/2003

Brief synopsis of An Actor's Revenge

Perhaps director Kon Ichikawa's most stylistically inventive film, AN ACTOR'S REVENGE was adapted from a newspaper serial written by Otokichi Mikami and stars Kazuo Hasegawa as Yukinojo Nakamura, a celebrated "oyama," or female impersonator, working with the Ichimura kabuki troupe in 1836 Edo. During a performance one night, he catches sight of Sansai Dobe (Ganjiro Nakamura), the magistrate who ordered the murder of the actor's father years before. Despite the objections of his teacher, Yukinojo is intent on taking revenge not only against Dobe but against Kawaguchiya (Saburo Date) and Kokaiya (Eijaro Yanagi), businessmen who were also involved in the crime. He intends to begin by seducing Dobe's daughter Namiji (Ayako Wakao), but when she falls in love with him after seeing him on the stage, Yukinojo begins to approach his plan differently. With rice in short supply, Kawaguchiya has tried to corner the market to best business rival Kokaiya. Yukinojo uses the situation to play the two off one another, resulting in successive tragedies for Kawaguchiya. Kokaiya's next action takes everyone by surprise. Ichikawa weds visual and narrative elements of the Kabuki theater to the conventional revenge plot in a coruscating ballet of light, color, and action.

Related

Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Having starred in the 1935 version, veteran actor Kazuo Hasegawa reprises the dual role of Yukinojo the female impersonator and Yamitaro, the bandit who befriends him. Revelling in his scheme to destroy the triumverate responsible for the suicide of his parents — he starts by seducing the daughter of one of the men — Hasegawa gives a performance of rare immersion and control. While remaining faithful to Daisuke Ito's 1935 original, director Kon Ichikawa creates a nice sense of nostalgia and irony by recreating not only the conventions of Kabuki theatre, but also the look of Japanese painting and the films of the early sound era.

Time Out

Yukinojo, a female impersonator in a Kabuki theatre troupe, takes revenge on the three nobles who forced his parents to... Read more on www.timeout.com

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsbeautiful and stylised

A customer from Belfast , 03/06/2004

This Japanese movie from the sixties is about a successful female impersonating actor who is bent on revenge. The actor lives as well as performs in female dress and this contrasts with his skill with the blade - he is in fact a trained swordsman.

The sets and costumes are beautiful. It is shot in a quite arty way which is wonderfully atmospheric but slightly artificial.

The joy of the film is the interaction between the characters, a great number who seem to fall madly in love with the actor. In the midst of all this melodrama the actor is restrained, his movements careful and exact.

If you like period Japanese drama, you'll love this beautiful, slightly stylised example.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsBetter than Kill Bill

A customer from Reading, England , 11/08/2004

The film has apparently been made totally in the studio, without an attempt to disguise the fact: this adds to the eerie, stylised feel of the film.

The male players of female roles were expected to maintain their feminine appearance outside the stage as well as on it; this does not mean they were transsexuals or homosexuals. Even today most fans of the onna-gata (I'm not sure if that's right) are women. This is another factor that adds to the enchanting weirdness of the film, for the western viewer anyway.

It seems to me that Kill Bill was attempting to recreate some of this theatrical, distancing style - not of this film but of many Asian films of the past - but original is better, even if the fights are not quite as long and tedious.

Highly recommend!

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsI was trained as a painter and I still think like one.

Chester Dent from London, England [Highly rated reviewer] , 18/01/2007

Japanese box-office idol Kazuo Hasegawa returns to the dual roles he played 25 years previously and demonstrates an extraordinary display of acting in this audacious, eccentric, wildly melodramatic film. The use of wide-screen camera and colour is breathtaking as Hasegawa exacts revenge for his parents suicide against a backdrop of stylish romance, fighting and theatre, while traditional Japanese music combines perfectly with the vivacity of Western influences for the soundtrack. A highly accomplished film.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsunparalleled

A customer from LONDON , 12/06/2006

this is without doubt the most beautiful film i have ever seen, not only in temrs of the sets and costumes (each kimono is a work of art in itself). the visual splendour is absolutely entrancing (without being saturated by that slightly smug 'period-drama' gravitas that so many western period films exhibit), while the mise-en-scene is absolutely inspired. the direction is highly theatrical in places, making use of dramatic stage-lighting and spotlights, which works exceptionally well, not least because the protagonist plays a stage-actor, so the theatricals overspill from the stage to the rest of the film. i have quite simply never seen a film to compare with this in terms of its visual and directorial qualities. the story is incredibly well-presented, the whole thing is 'art' as opposed to 'arty'. this is what the medium of film should aspire to.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 5 starsunparalleled

A customer from LONDON , 12/06/2006

this is without doubt the most beautiful film i have ever seen, not only in temrs of the sets and costumes (each kimono is a work of art in itself). the visual splendour is absolutely entrancing (without being saturated by that slightly smug 'period-drama' gravitas that so many western period films exhibit), while the mise-en-scene is absolutely inspired. the direction is highly theatrical in places, making use of dramatic stage-lighting and spotlights, which works exceptionally well, not least because the protagonist plays a stage-actor, so the theatricals overspill from the stage to the rest of the film. i have quite simply never seen a film to compare with this in terms of its visual and directorial qualities. the story is incredibly well-presented, the whole thing is 'art' as opposed to 'arty'. this is what the medium of film should aspire to.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsbeautiful and stylised

A customer from Belfast , 03/06/2004

This Japanese movie from the sixties is about a successful female impersonating actor who is bent on revenge. The actor lives as well as performs in female dress and this contrasts with his skill with the blade - he is in fact a trained swordsman.

The sets and costumes are beautiful. It is shot in a quite arty way which is wonderfully atmospheric but slightly artificial.

The joy of the film is the interaction between the characters, a great number who seem to fall madly in love with the actor. In the midst of all this melodrama the actor is restrained, his movements careful and exact.

If you like period Japanese drama, you'll love this beautiful, slightly stylised example.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all highest rated reviews