Aka Revenge of a Kabuki Actor (1963)
Before you go through the rest of the review, I must first qualify this one by saying I only watched 15 minutes.
I know of the many praises for this film; that is why I decided to watch it. Director Kon Ichikawa is a well-known director and is directed over 97 films. Daisuke Itô has written more than 100 screenplays in adaptations. Masaichi Nagata has produced at least 140 titles. Many of the actors are well known to people who follow most of the Japanese movies.
If you follow my reviews, you will notice that I am fairly eclectic and will watch anything as long as it is moving; okay, I will watch it even if it is not moving. Unfortunately, in this case, the film moves too fast to be able to take in its intricacies and read the subtitles at the same time. The only way to get through this film is to either watch it several times or press the pause button every five seconds.
The subtitles are readable and the have super-titles to tell you what the music is all about. All the credits have English imposed over the top of the Japanese. I checked all of the options on the DVD and did not find any English dubbed tracks.
What I did watch did surprise me a little bit as people were describing this in such glowing words, as a Shakespearian type movie. Yet it was very contemporary in its dialogue and I swear I saw most of the actors in sci-fi movies of that time.
The basic story that is based on a newspaper serial is of spots the men responsible for his parents' deaths and takes revenge starting with the daughter of one of the culprits. The little of the movie that I did watch, we were inside the actor's head as he was plotting.
All of the elements of a good movie are there but keeping up with the subtitles or guessing at the intent is excruciating. I will wait for the English dubbing or just watch the original film that this is based on.
Before you go through the rest of the review, I must first qualify this one by saying I only watched 15 minutes.
I know of the many praises for this film; that is why I decided to watch it. Director Kon Ichikawa is a well-known director and is directed over 97 films. Daisuke Itô has written more than 100 screenplays in adaptations. Masaichi Nagata has produced at least 140 titles. Many of the actors are well known to people who follow most of the Japanese movies.
If you follow my reviews, you will notice that I am fairly eclectic and will watch anything as long as it is moving; okay, I will watch it even if it is not moving. Unfortunately, in this case, the film moves too fast to be able to take in its intricacies and read the subtitles at the same time. The only way to get through this film is to either watch it several times or press the pause button every five seconds.
The subtitles are readable and the have super-titles to tell you what the music is all about. All the credits have English imposed over the top of the Japanese. I checked all of the options on the DVD and did not find any English dubbed tracks.
What I did watch did surprise me a little bit as people were describing this in such glowing words, as a Shakespearian type movie. Yet it was very contemporary in its dialogue and I swear I saw most of the actors in sci-fi movies of that time.
The basic story that is based on a newspaper serial is of spots the men responsible for his parents' deaths and takes revenge starting with the daughter of one of the culprits. The little of the movie that I did watch, we were inside the actor's head as he was plotting.
All of the elements of a good movie are there but keeping up with the subtitles or guessing at the intent is excruciating. I will wait for the English dubbing or just watch the original film that this is based on.