OROCHI - Benshi
| Durée: |
74
min |
Sous-titres: | English | Sortie: |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Langue: | None | Pays: | Japan
|
The screening of silent movie Orochi (The Serpent, Buntarô Futagara, Japan, 1925, 74 min) and Japanese benshi narration (with English subtitles directly embedded in the film) by Mr. Kataoka Ichirō accompanied by his musicians will take place on Friday, May 25, 2018, at Palace. Before the screening a short introduction to the film, to the historical background of the film and to the benshi will be given by Prof. Dr. Jan Schmidt (KU Leuven) and Leen Engelen (KU Leuven/LUCA).
Plot : The story of a decent samurai who is widely considered a scum and a criminal. His bad luck and numerous misunderstandings drag him down the social ladder straight to the gutter.
BENSHI : In Japan way longer than in Europe silent films - and sometimes even intentionally muted talkies later - were accompanied by a very lively and theatrical narration by one or more benshi (silent film narrators) together with musicians. The benshi were so immensely popular for their art that some movie goers actually selected the films only based on who would do the narration that evening. The art of the benshi narration - "doing" all roles and also giving witty explanations - almost vanished entirely in throughout the 1930s and was almost extinct, but fortunately some young enthusiasts managed to learn the tricks and trade of the benshi narration from some of the last narration. One of them, a female narrator named Sawato Midori, trained a number of disciples and one of them now became a star in Japanese performing arts: Kataoka Ichirō.
Kataoka Ichirō is also a frequent performer at silent movie festivals such as the Cinema Muto festival in Pordenone, Italy, and at cinemas and also at film study centers at major academic institutions (such as the British Academy, Ivy League Universities like Harvard University and Yale University etc.
Plot : The story of a decent samurai who is widely considered a scum and a criminal. His bad luck and numerous misunderstandings drag him down the social ladder straight to the gutter.
BENSHI : In Japan way longer than in Europe silent films - and sometimes even intentionally muted talkies later - were accompanied by a very lively and theatrical narration by one or more benshi (silent film narrators) together with musicians. The benshi were so immensely popular for their art that some movie goers actually selected the films only based on who would do the narration that evening. The art of the benshi narration - "doing" all roles and also giving witty explanations - almost vanished entirely in throughout the 1930s and was almost extinct, but fortunately some young enthusiasts managed to learn the tricks and trade of the benshi narration from some of the last narration. One of them, a female narrator named Sawato Midori, trained a number of disciples and one of them now became a star in Japanese performing arts: Kataoka Ichirō.
Kataoka Ichirō is also a frequent performer at silent movie festivals such as the Cinema Muto festival in Pordenone, Italy, and at cinemas and also at film study centers at major academic institutions (such as the British Academy, Ivy League Universities like Harvard University and Yale University etc.
| Réalisation | Futagawa Buntarō |
|---|
