An Actor’s Revenge

October 17, 2015
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Film past event
Kon Ichikawa Restorations

Ichikawa was assigned to remake Teinosuke Kinugasa’s 1935 melodrama An Actor’s Revenge, an enormously popular film in its day, after Daiei studios’ dissatisfaction with the returns on the director’s previous films. Seeing potential in the material, Ichikawa worked with his wife, Natto Wada, to transform the pulpy source material into a spectacular visual masterpiece. Veteran film actor Kazuo Hasegawa reprises his original role as Yukinojo, an onnagata (a kabuki actor who specializes in women’s roles) during the Tokugawa period who seeks revenge on the men responsible for the ruin and suicide of his parents. Ingeniously conceived and executed as a mix of hyper-stylized kabuki theater and Western cinematic realism, An Actor’s Revenge features some of Ichikawa’s most elaborate use of the widescreen frame, spotlighting Yoshinobu Nishioka’s breathtaking production design and Setsuo Kobayashi‘s vivid Cinemascope photography.

1963, 114 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Kon Ichikawa. With Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Wakao Ayako, Ganjiro Nakamura, Raizo Ichikawa.

TICKETS
$12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors & students.

Special Offer: Purchase tickets to all three Kon Ichikawa Restorations in the same transaction and receive $2 off each ticket! Order only at Box Office or by phone (212) 715-1258. Offer not available online.

Box Office Policy

  • Saturday, October 17, 2015
  • 7:00 pm