"Actor's Revenge" only fails to extend times that do not collaborate for its construction, generating two underworlds. In the first we have the scenes of action and revenge in a world full of frenzy, in another, we have the oscillations of character, the questionings and a whole insertion of poetic images that take much of the film and give it a contemplative rhythm and consequently dragged, But both underworlds are linked by the precise performance of Yukinojo (Kazuo Hasegawa), who is divided between an actor specializing in women roles of the Kabuki Theater and who wishes to avenge the death of the parents. And as second character, a pickpocket, a thief.
Kon Ichikawa, a famous Japanese director, known for his meticulously perfectionist but commercially fruitless films, was commissioned to readjust the novel Otokichi Mikami, and consequently, along with his wife and frequent collaborator, screenwriter Natto Wada, transformed what would be a Banal melodrama in a delirious, highly stylized and idiosyncratic spectacle.
From the outset, Ichikawa's irreverent and sarcastic mood would set the infectiously playful but stylistically audacious and self-assured tone of the kitsch eccentric fusion of high-end art and pop culture.
"Actor's Revenge" is a stylistically daring and irreverent satire that seeks to reconcile the familiar and traditional elements of native culture with the modern vitality of Western influence in contemporary Japan. Recurring fragmentation of Ichikawa's images reflects the voyeuristic relationship between the spectator and the artist: obscure and prolonged battle scenes, witnessed by rooftops, seamless visual transitions between theatrical dramatization and stylized, "real life" episodes, the framing of Actors through doors or other visual occlusions that seem to underscore the intrusive view of the public. The old-fashioned script for the tragic melodrama (shimpa) popular early in Japanese cinema is infused with irony, social satire, and dual-minded visual subversives.
The eccentric fusion of traditional and modern Japanese art forms is exemplified by an eclectic soundtrack that combines traditional accompaniment of kabuki, folk music, jazz and avant-garde ambient sounds.
Kon Ichikawa, a famous Japanese director, known for his meticulously perfectionist but commercially fruitless films, was commissioned to readjust the novel Otokichi Mikami, and consequently, along with his wife and frequent collaborator, screenwriter Natto Wada, transformed what would be a Banal melodrama in a delirious, highly stylized and idiosyncratic spectacle.
From the outset, Ichikawa's irreverent and sarcastic mood would set the infectiously playful but stylistically audacious and self-assured tone of the kitsch eccentric fusion of high-end art and pop culture.
"Actor's Revenge" is a stylistically daring and irreverent satire that seeks to reconcile the familiar and traditional elements of native culture with the modern vitality of Western influence in contemporary Japan. Recurring fragmentation of Ichikawa's images reflects the voyeuristic relationship between the spectator and the artist: obscure and prolonged battle scenes, witnessed by rooftops, seamless visual transitions between theatrical dramatization and stylized, "real life" episodes, the framing of Actors through doors or other visual occlusions that seem to underscore the intrusive view of the public. The old-fashioned script for the tragic melodrama (shimpa) popular early in Japanese cinema is infused with irony, social satire, and dual-minded visual subversives.
The eccentric fusion of traditional and modern Japanese art forms is exemplified by an eclectic soundtrack that combines traditional accompaniment of kabuki, folk music, jazz and avant-garde ambient sounds.