ARCHIVED ONLINE EVENT - Japan Society Film Club: An Actor's Revenge directed by Kon Ichikawa

Date
Wednesday 3 March 2021
Time
6.30pm

Booking Details
Free - Booking essential
Priority for Japan Society Members

Please remember to watch the film in advance. An Actor's Revenge is available on BFI player with subscription.

The activities of the Japan Society are made possible thanks to the support of its members. This event is free of charge and open to all. We realise that this is a difficult time for many people. However, if you are planning to attend and do not have a membership subscription as an individual or through your employer, please consider making a donation. You can find details of membership and how to join the Japan Society community here.

Do you love Japanese film classics, anime or contemporary cinema stories? Do you miss Japan and want to see it at least on screen? Would you like to learn and discuss about Japanese culture and society? Join us for the new Japan Society Film Club where we will chat online about films and Japan in an informal atmosphere.

For the Film Club in March we invite you to watch a sumptuous story of vengeance and retribution in the classic film An Actor's Revenge directed by Kon Ichikawa in 1963.

An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化, Yukinojō Henge, 1963) is a spectacular period drama (jidai geki) made in vivid wide-screen format. The film was a remake of an homonymous work directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa in 1935 and was produced to mark the 300th screen appearance of film and stage actor Kazuo Hasegawa who starred in both films. Yukinojo (Kazuo Hasegawa) is a famous kabuki actor specialising in women's roles (onnagata) during the Tokugawa period. While his kabuki troupe is performing in Edo (Tokyo), he comes across the three men responsible for the ruin and suicide of his parents twenty years earlier. He plans his revenge using the affection of Namiji (Ayako Wakao), the daughter of one of the men.

Kon Ichikawa (1915-2008) was one of the most prolific and celebrated directors of the Japanese postwar studio era. Internationally recognised through films such as The Burmese Harp (1956) or The Makioka Sisters (1983), Ichikawa was a versatile filmmaker both in form and content. He began his career in the animation department of Toho film studio in Kyoto and directed his first film in 1946, The Girl at Dojo Temple, a puppet drama based on a traditional Kabuki play. In the first part of his career, he collaborated with his wife, screenwriter Natto Wada, and together they created witty comedy films such as Mr. Pu (1953), anti-war dramas such as Fires on the Plain (1959) and film adaptation of literary works such as Kokoro (1955) Conflagration (1958) or The Key (1959). He also directed the documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965), the official chronicle of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the multiscreen work Japan and Japanese for the 1970 Osaka Expo. His later works included a television serialization of The Tale of Genji, an Italian co-production of the animated film Topo Gigio and the Missile War (1967) and several remakes of his own films such as The Burmese Harp (1985) and his final feature The Inugamis (2006).

Japan Society Film Club takes place on the first Wednesday of the month. We will recommend a film to watch in advance and meet online to discuss. Films are often available online for free, on DVD or on BFI player(*) which include a special season on Japanese cinema. When possible, we will invite film experts to introduce and lead the discussion, but the event is open to all and we encourage participants to freely express their opinions and feelings about the films.

If you have any questions, please call the Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

Booking Info