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context: movies > some films
An Actor's Revenge
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Kazuo Hasegawa |
1963. Original title Yukinojo Henge. Director: Kon Ichikawa. Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa.
After overspending heavily on The Sin (especially to get the snow scene he wanted) Kon Ichikawa was forced to make a period melodrama based on an onnagata, a male actor who played female roles in kabuki. It was a remake of a 1935 movie based on a potboiler newspaper serial, and the lead role was to be played by the same star as the original. He was a young man then, and the role of an onnagata with whom many people fall in love was perhaps rather more plausible than when he was a tubby man in his mid-50s.
This was An Actor's Revenge, featuring perhaps the most stunningly composed scenes I've ever come across. Ichikawa had a ludicrous story and an unsuitable star (who is actually terrific in the role, despite looking past his best), but he had a fairly free hand with visuals, and made a dazzling masterpiece out of his unpromising material.