©1955

1 videodisc (86 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in.

1866 Kyoto sees a sensational acting competition between Tojuro Sakata, a popular kabuki player native of Kyoto, and Shichisaburo Nakamura, a star player visiting from Edo. While Shichisaburo has a great run by importing the latest trend from the capital, Tojuro fails to seize the audience's attention since he sticks with an old conventional play. Gathering at the upstairs of the restaurant owned by Okaji, who had once fallen in love with Tojuro but is now married to a rich merchant, Tojuro and his theater troop discuss and elaborate a plan to beat Shichisaburo up and to regain popularity. Tojuro insists that the audience should aspire to more realistic plays based on the real life of the people living in the present time. He calls the playwright Chikamatsu from Osaka, and they come up with a new play dealing with adultery when they see on Sanjo Bridge the corpses of the lovers executed for their unforgivable love. Chikamatsu provides a wonderful script, but Tojuro hesitates to put it on the stage because he has no confidence of playing it perfectly unless he is involved in an intrigue with someone as his own experience. Caught in a hopeless plight, Tojuro goes to Okaji's second house and suddenly seduces her for the sake of the play. Tojuro's new play is extremely well received--although Okaji commits suicide at the basement of the stage during the intermission, realizing that Tojuro cheated her with his pseudo love.

Images / Video & Film

Japanese

March 14, 2019

DVD, NTSC; region 2; 4:3 standard size; Dolby digital.

DABA-91254 Kadokawa