Traveling Actors
(Tabi yakusha)
Screening on Film
Directed by Naruse Mikio.
With Fujiwara Kamatari, Yanagiya Kan, Takase Minoru.
Japan, 1940, 35mm, black & white, 71 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
With Fujiwara Kamatari, Yanagiya Kan, Takase Minoru.
Japan, 1940, 35mm, black & white, 71 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Bittersweet for its bowdlerization and its comedic depiction of labor exploitation, Traveling Actors was one of Naruse's personal favorites. Two kabuki actors (Takase Minoru and Fujiwara Kamatari) play the front and back ends of a horse as other men are drafted to fight on actual horseback. Naruse pairs physical comedy with the grim reality of precarious employment to convey the paradoxical nature of being an artist in wartime—to be luckier than a soldier, to be exploited for cheap by a broken system and to selfishly pursue perfection. According to Donald Richie, an entire section was removed from the film for "reasons of excessive levity." – Kelley Dong
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Traveling Actors
Directed by Naruse Mikio, 1940
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The Road I Travel with You / Avalanche
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