![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kurosawa in the balcony
Mar. 19th, 2010 08:56 amLooking over my LJ posts as a record of my evenings out, I realize that it wouldn't be representative of earlier periods of my life. Even leaving aside reviewing, for instance, I go to a lot more concerts than I did in my 20s. It's a bit stunning to remember that, during my three years in Seattle, I only heard the Seattle Symphony maybe twice. Of course, then I couldn't afford to go.
On the other hand, one thing I did fairly often in those days but hardly do at all now is to spend an evening with a friend or two, slouched up in a theatre balcony, watching weird movies.
But the Stanford Theatre is running a Kurosawa festival, and I'd never seen any Kurosawa - yes, I know - so with the help of a prompting by one of my Shakespeare-reading friends, there we were to see Throne of Blood and The Bad Sleep Well.
Throne of Blood, is, of course, Kurosawa's famous adaptation of Macbeth into medieval Japan: lots of warriors with the horned helmets on. And a very close adaptation of Macbeth it is, too; I doubt I'd have had much trouble following it even were there no subtitles. Such plot changes as are made either sensibly simplify the story or intelligently elaborate on character motivation. It's also like Shakespeare in that almost all the fighting is depicted by having spear-carriers rush on stage and tell everybody about it. The really exciting moment comes when you realize there is no Macduff, so how is Macbeth (Toshiro Mifune) going to get killed? And then you find out: memorably.
The Bad Sleep Well is sometimes described as an adaptation of Hamlet, but it isn't, really: it's a revenge tragedy with some Hamlet-like elements in it. Viewed as Hamlet, it would have to be described as starting with Hamlet and Ophelia's wedding, so you can see how far off it is already. The opening is a hugely dense expository lump, introducing gobs of characters you can't possibly be expected to keep straight yet, but gradually it clarifies itself into a pretty exciting thriller plot that only lasts a little bit too long. You'll know you've gotten well into the good part when the Ghost shows up. And no, this film is not a fantasy.
It has a contemporary setting, so there's no helmets, and there's more relaxed, naturalistic acting than the very stylized Noh stuff in Throne of Blood. Mifune as the Hamlet character shows what he looks like neatly shaved and in glasses and a business suit, and demonstrates that he can act in other modes than yelling and growling, though he gets to do some more of both of those, too.
Here are some things I learned about Japanese upper-level business society circa 1960, as shown in the movies:
On the other hand, one thing I did fairly often in those days but hardly do at all now is to spend an evening with a friend or two, slouched up in a theatre balcony, watching weird movies.
But the Stanford Theatre is running a Kurosawa festival, and I'd never seen any Kurosawa - yes, I know - so with the help of a prompting by one of my Shakespeare-reading friends, there we were to see Throne of Blood and The Bad Sleep Well.
Throne of Blood, is, of course, Kurosawa's famous adaptation of Macbeth into medieval Japan: lots of warriors with the horned helmets on. And a very close adaptation of Macbeth it is, too; I doubt I'd have had much trouble following it even were there no subtitles. Such plot changes as are made either sensibly simplify the story or intelligently elaborate on character motivation. It's also like Shakespeare in that almost all the fighting is depicted by having spear-carriers rush on stage and tell everybody about it. The really exciting moment comes when you realize there is no Macduff, so how is Macbeth (Toshiro Mifune) going to get killed? And then you find out: memorably.
The Bad Sleep Well is sometimes described as an adaptation of Hamlet, but it isn't, really: it's a revenge tragedy with some Hamlet-like elements in it. Viewed as Hamlet, it would have to be described as starting with Hamlet and Ophelia's wedding, so you can see how far off it is already. The opening is a hugely dense expository lump, introducing gobs of characters you can't possibly be expected to keep straight yet, but gradually it clarifies itself into a pretty exciting thriller plot that only lasts a little bit too long. You'll know you've gotten well into the good part when the Ghost shows up. And no, this film is not a fantasy.
It has a contemporary setting, so there's no helmets, and there's more relaxed, naturalistic acting than the very stylized Noh stuff in Throne of Blood. Mifune as the Hamlet character shows what he looks like neatly shaved and in glasses and a business suit, and demonstrates that he can act in other modes than yelling and growling, though he gets to do some more of both of those, too.
Here are some things I learned about Japanese upper-level business society circa 1960, as shown in the movies:
- In public, men wear Western-style suits or tuxes, but women wear an adaptation of traditional Japanese clothes.
- Japanese weddings feature the same inane toasts and fluffy white cakes, and the same playing of the Wagner and Mendelssohn wedding marches, as do Western weddings.
- Japanese, we know, bow a lot. A man who would bow to his superior when speaking with him in person will also bow when speaking with him on the telephone. This is why he stands up from his desk to make the call.
- Japanese, we know, don't wear their shoes inside the house. This means that if you've got a bum leg and are hobbling around with a crutch, you'll have two crutches, one for outdoors and one for indoors. If you have a maid, she'll clean off the foot of the outdoors crutch every time you come inside.
- Japanese are so hierarchial (see item #3) that it's virtually impossible to hold a corruption investigation, because a proper bureaucrat simply will not rat on his bosses.
