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| Yuzo Kawashima: 幕末太陽傳 / Bakumatsu taiyoden / The Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (JP 1957). |
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| Yuzo Kawashima: 幕末太陽傳 / Bakumatsu taiyoden / The Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (JP 1957). |
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| Yuzo Kawashima: 幕末太陽傳 / Bakumatsu taiyoden / The Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (JP 1957).
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幕末太陽傳 / A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era / The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era / Sun Legend of the Shogunate's Last Days / Chronique du soleil à la fin de l'ère Edo.
JP 1957. Director: Yuzo Kawashima.
Scen.: Keiichi Tanaka, Yuzo Kawashima, Shohei Imamura. F.: Kurataro Takamura. M.: Tadashi Nakamura. Scgf.: Kazuhiko Chiba, Kimihiko Nakamura. Mus.: Toshiro Mayuzumi. Ass. regia: Shohei Imamura.
Int.: Frankie Sakai (Inokori Saheiji), Sachiko Hidari (Osome), Yoko Minamida (Koharu), Yujiro Ishihara (Shinsaku Takasugi), Izumi Ashikawa (Ohisa), Toshiyuki Ichimura (Mokubei), Nobuo Kaneko (Denbei), Hisano Yamaoka (Otatsu, moglie di Denbei), Yasukiyo Umeno (Tokusaburo, figlio di Otatsu), Masao Oda (Zenpachi).
Prod.: Nikkatsu. DCP. 110 min. Bn.
Unreleased in Finland.
Bologna: Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020: Yuzo Kawashima: The Missing Link
DCP from Nikkatsu. A digital restoration was conducted in 2012 to the Nikkatsu Centenary.
Japanese version with English subtitles on DCP by Dean Shimauchi and e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti Londra.
Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 31 Aug 2020
Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): "Widely regarded as Kawashima’s signature work, this witty, relaxed and irreverent film unfolds in the mid-19th century in and around a brothel in the pleasure quarter of Yukaku in Shinagawa, now a district of Tokyo, then the first of the numerous post towns along the Tokaido highway stretching westwards toward Kyoto. Protagonist Saheiji, played by Kawashima’s regular collaborator, comedian Frankie Sakai, proves unable to pay the bill, and is obliged to pay off his debt to the brothel by working there. Inspired by the tradition of comic storytelling, or rakugo, Kawashima integrates characters from its classic repertoire with elements of the turbulent history of the so-called bakumatsu period, as the Shogunate which had governed Japan for more than 250 years stood on the verge of collapse. As critic Frederick Veith writes, Kawashima was “always attentive to the complex mediation and negotiation of social forces in a society in the midst of change”, and “often visualised this in the ebb and flow and constantly shifting, subtle reorientation of bodies as they move through space… In Bakumatsu taiyoden the focal point of this is the large central corridor of the Sagami-ya [brothel], through which he conducts traffic as if he were filming a busy street, full of economic activity”. Indeed, this period film is also arguably a comment on the postwar Japan in which it was made – the era of economic growth and transformation – as the opening shots of Shinagawa’s modern red light district (then on the verge of closure after a change in Japanese law) suggests. The “Kinema Junpo” reviewer, one may suppose, was reflecting on this contemporary context in his cryptic comment that the film, although a jidaigeki, “reeked of butter” (ie, evoked the West), and when he identified the young samurai revolutionaries as après-guerre figures. He praised the way in which Kawashima depicted the eroticism of the pleasure district with humour, commented that the character of Saheiji as played by Sakai reminded him of Figaro, and noted that the film was, “as always, very well made”. Kawashima himself, interviewed in “Kinema Junpo”, observed that “depicting serious characters in a serious way is always difficult, and therefore I am afraid that my characters always become rather careless, or at least almost certainly scatterbrained. It is not that I am looking for an easy way out, but I kind of feel like I want to leave [myself] an escape route”. Commenting on the film’s fusion of fact and fiction through the characters of Inokori Saheiji and Shinsaku Takasugi (a fictional character and a historical figure respectively), he said: “It goes without saying that they have different personalities. However, to my mind, they both lived life with vigour, and I think that they fit together. Five or six years ago I thought of this combination, and this is the result. These two characters were not easy to tie down, and pushed me to the breaking point. That is to say, the energy that these two characters have, perhaps best called vital force, was stronger than I had expected, and overpowered my own meagre strength”. Shohei Imamura, just about to embark on his own directorial career, cowrote the screenplay; the film is, as he wrote, “essential to an understanding of Kawashima”." Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020)
IMDb synopsis: "In the last days of the Shogunate, a resourceful grifter seeks to outwit competing prostitutes, rebellious samurai and other inhabitants of a brothel in order to survive the hardened times."
Nikkatsu synopsis: "Set in the last few years of the Shogun's rule, this period / ensemble movie depicts the lives of the young and the restless at a whorehouse. The protagonist is Saheiji, a resourceful, witty free spirit. It's 1862, six years before the Shogun turned his political power over to the Emperor. Penniless Saheiji splashes out at a famous Shinagawa whorehouse. He's forced to stay on at the whorehouse to repay his debt. At first Saheiji is regarded as an unwelcome guest who never leaves but it turns out he is not just a poor grifter. None of the whorehouse's guests, hosts, servants and attending ladies are innocent but they are pragmatic schemers. Saheiji soon endears himself to them all and solves many whorehouse disputes with his wit. But it is slowly revealed that the seemingly perfect Saheiji is suffering from tuberculosis and his future is uncertain..."
AA: I saw for the first time Bakumatsu taiyoden. For the curators Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström, it's Yuzo Kawashima's signature work. It gets repeatedly voted among the best Japanese films of all times.
I saw five Kawashima films in Bologna's retrospective, and Bakumatsu taiyoden was the only one that left me indifferent, no doubt because of my lacking understanding of its cultural codes and verbal jokes based on a slang that can be difficult even for native speakers.
It's a comedy and a farce, and I found Kawashima's sense of humour appealing in all the other films, not here. It's not only about the grotesque tone. In the earlier films I appreciated a life-affirming ambience, a self-evident conviction that adversities are to be overcome.
Here the obsession to ridicule seems to me forced and overdone. This is no laughter with tears. It's a hollow laughter with a sense of darkness and pessimism that the laughter tries in vain to hide.
I fail to connect with the shallow characters and find the lowbrow shenanigans tiresome. I miss the engrossing sense of community in Kawashima's earlier films.
Perhaps it's the brothel milieu, a life based on mutual exploitation, an instrumental approach to human relationships. Only a Max Ophuls can create a bordello film with a sense of generosity (La Maison Tellier in Le Plaisir). Kenji Mizoguchi introduces a passionate empathy to his tragic tales in the Red Light District. In Kawashima's vision I find only futility and triviality.
Donald Richie compares Bakumatsu taiyoden with Humanity and Paper Balloons, which I liked, and I see the connection between the protagonists, but I find the approaches of Yuzo Kawashima and Sadao Yamanaka incompatible.
I need to revisit both and learn to understand the Japanese sense of frivolity, the rakugo spirit of the Japanese comedy of manners. Perhaps there is an affinity with commedia all'italiana, the kind of comedy that does not make us laugh.
The narrative approach: a multi-character study, a cross-section film, a Grand Hotel set in a Shinagawa whorehouse in 1862. "People come, people go. Nothing ever happens".
概要
川島雄三監督の代表作である異色コメディ映画で、実在した遊郭「相模屋」を舞台に起こる様々な出来事をグランドホテル方式の構成でテンポ良く描いている。年代を問わず観客の支持を得ており、日本映画史上の名作の一本として数えられる。
ストーリーはオリジナルだが、落語『居残り佐平次』から主人公を拝借し、『品川心中』『三枚起請』『お見立て』などの物語を随所に散りばめた。脚本はチーフ助監督も務めた今村昌平と田中啓一が川島と共同で執筆し、フランキー堺が主演した。1957年度のキネマ旬報ベストテンで第4位にランクインされた。
あらすじ
頃は幕末－－ここ品川宿の遊女屋相模屋に登楼したのは佐平次の一行。さんざ遊んだ挙句に懐は無一文。怒った楼主伝兵衛は佐平次を行燈部屋に追払った。
ところがこの男黙って居残りをする代物ではない。いつの間にやら玄関へ飛び出して番頭みたいな仕事を始めたが、その要領のよいこと。売れっ妓こはるの部屋に入浸って勘定がたまる一方の攘夷の志士高杉晋作たちから、そのカタをとって来たり、親子して同じこはるに通い続けたのがばれての親子喧嘩もうまく納めるといった具合。しかもその度に御祝儀を頂戴して懐を温める抜け目のない佐平次であった。
この図々しい居残りが数日続くうちに、仕立物まで上手にする彼の器用さは、女郎こはるとおそめをいかれさせてしまった。かくて佐平次は二人の女からロ説かれる仕儀となった。ところが佐平次はこんな二人に目もくれずに大奮闘。女中おひさにほれた相模屋の太陽息子徳三郎は、おひさとの仲の橋渡しを佐平次に頼んだ。佐平次はこれを手数料十両で引受けた。
あくまでちゃっかりしている佐平次は、こはるの部屋の高杉らに着目。彼らが御殿山英国公使館の焼打ちを謀っていることを知ると、御殿山工事場に出入りしている大工に異人館の地図を作らせ、これを高杉らに渡してまたまた儲けた。その上焼打ちの舟に、徳三郎とおひさを便乗させることも忘れなかった。
その夜、御殿山に火が上った。この事件のすきに、ここらが引上げ時としこたま儲けた佐平次は旅支度。そこへこはるの客杢兵衛大尽が、こはるがいないと大騒ぎ。佐平次は、こはるは急死したと誤魔化してその場を繕い、翌朝早く旅支度して表に出ると、杢兵衛が待ち構えていてこはるの墓に案内しろという。
これも居残り稼業最後の稼ぎと、彼は杢兵衛から祝儀をもらうと、近くの墓地でいいかげんの石塔をこはるの墓と教えた。杢兵衛一心に拝んでいたが、ふと顔をあげるとこれが子供の戒名。欺されたと真赤になって怒る大尽を尻目に、佐平次は振分けかついで東海道の松並木を韋駄天走りに駈け去って行った。
時代背景
この作品の舞台となる品川宿は、現在の京急本線・北品川駅周辺にあたる。映画の冒頭に、舞台となる相模屋の映画撮影当時の姿である「さがみホテル」が登場する。バックに流れる加藤武のナレーションはここを「北品川カフェー街と呼ばれる16軒の特飲街」と紹介する。つまり赤線地帯である。映画の撮影当時は、まさにこの赤線廃止が目的で作られた売春防止法成立直前であり、カメラは滅びつつある風景を写しながら既に滅びてしまった風景へと遡っていく不思議な効果を生んでいる。相模屋は実在した旅籠である。舞台となる文久2年には、実際に高杉晋作や久坂玄瑞が逗留していたといわれている。高杉らはこの旅籠に滞在し、御殿山に建設中だった英国公使館焼き討ち事件を計画していた。相模屋は地元では土蔵相模という呼び名の方が良く知られている。実物は現存しないが、模型が品川区立品川歴史館に展示されている。模型を見ると、川島雄三とスタッフが細部に至るまで、この旅籠を忠実に再現していることがわかる。なお、映画内に登場する志道聞多は井上聞多のちの井上馨、伊藤春輔は伊藤俊輔のちの伊藤博文である。
キャスト
居残り佐平次：フランキー堺
大尽を装って無一文で「相模屋」で豪遊し、居残って金を返済するために働く男。悪い風邪をひいている。
女郎おそめ：左幸子
こはると人気を争う女郎。
女郎こはる：南田洋子
おそめと人気を争う女郎。
高杉晋作：石原裕次郎
「相模屋」に長期逗留し、同志らと英国領事館の焼き討ちを計画する。
女中おひさ：芦川いづみ
父の借金のカタに「相模屋」で女中として働かされている。
杢兵衛大盡：市村俊幸
千葉からやってきた大尽で、こはるの客。
相模屋楼主伝兵衛：金子信雄
「相模屋」の主人。番頭上がりの婿養子である。
伝兵衛女房お辰：山岡久乃
その妻。
息子徳三郎：梅野泰靖
お辰の息子。
番頭善八：織田政雄
若衆喜助：岡田真澄
若衆かね次：高原駿雄
若衆忠助：青木富夫
若衆三平：峰三平
やり手おくま：菅井きん
「相模屋」のやりて婆。
貸本屋金造：小沢昭一
「相模屋」に出入りする貸本屋。顔があばただらけで、アバ金と呼ばれている。
大工長兵衛：植村謙二郎
おひさの父。博打好き。
鬼島又兵衛：河野秋武
長州藩江戸詰見廻役。
気病みの新公：西村晃
佐平次の連れで、彼と共に無一文で「相模屋」に入る。
のみこみの金坊：熊倉一雄
粋がりの長ンま：三島謙
仏壇屋倉造：殿山泰司
こはるの客。
息子清七：加藤博司
志道聞多：二谷英明
久坂玄瑞：小林旭
伊藤春輔：関弘美
大和弥八郎：武藤章生
白井小助：穂高渓介
有吉熊次郎：秋津礼ニ
長嶺内藤太：宮部昭夫
岡っ引平六：河上信夫
ガエン者権太：井上昭文
ガエン者玄平：榎木兵衛
坊主悠念：山田禅二
吉原の附馬：井東柳晴
呉服屋：小泉郁之助
新造おとら：福田とよ
女郎おもよ：新井麗子
女郎およし：竹内洋子
女郎おてつ：芝あをみ
女郎おうの：清水千代子
女郎おさだ：高山千草
ナレーター：加藤武（クレジットなし）
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