An Actor's Revenge (1963)
"Yukinojô henge" (original title)

While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, ... See full summary »

Director:

Kon Ichikawa

Writers:

Daisuke Itô (adaptation), Teinosuke Kinugasa (adapt),

Stars:

Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kazuo Hasegawa	...	Yukinojo Nakamura / Yamitaro the Thief
Fujiko Yamamoto	...	Ohatsu
Ayako Wakao	...	Namiji
Eiji Funakoshi	...	Heima Kadokura
Narutoshi Hayashi	...	Mukuzu
Eijirô Yanagi	...	Hiromi-ya
Chûsha Ichikawa	...	Kikunojo Nakamura
Ganjirô Nakamura	...	Sansai Dobe
Saburô Date	...	Kawaguchi-ya
Jun Hamamura	...	Isshosai
Kikue Môri	...	Cruel Old Woman
Masayoshi Kikuno	...	Yukinojo's Father
Raizô Ichikawa	...	Hirutaro
Shintarô Katsu	...	Hojin
Yutaka Nakayama	...	Townsman

Storyline

While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, firstly by seducing the daughter of one of them, secondly by ruining them...

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Plot Keywords:

kabuki | jidai geki | sword | love | japan | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

16 June 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

An Actor's Revenge

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daiei Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During an exchange about half-way through the film, two characters are discussing the southern city Nagasaki, and they pronounce it 'NaNgasaki', which indicates the convention of speakers from Tokyo/Edo and the north of Japan, despite both characters notionally coming from the south (i.e. Osaka and Nagasaki), where terminal 'g' is not pronounced 'ng'.

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Connections

Version of Yukinojo henge (1935)

User Reviews

Even for a samurai or revenge film, this one is unusual.

I have seen several hundred Japanese films but am far from an expert on these movies. After all, I am not Japanese and don't always understand some of the subtleties in the pictures. For example, in "An Actor's Revenge", the main character (Yukinojo) is a man who performs as a woman on stage--that I knew and understood. However, he maintained this persona off-stage as well and I wondered just how unusual this was--did other male Kabuki actors also maintain this persona when they weren't acting? If you can answer this question, I would love to hear from you.

The film begins at a Kabuki performance. Yukinojo has recently come to Edo (Tokyo) and has been planning revenge on three scoundrels for many years. It seemed these wicked men were responsible for destroying his family and he sees himself as the instrument of revenge--much like the character in another famous Japanese film, "Lady Snowblood". However, he doesn't want to just stab them--he wants to have them linger and give him a chance to revel in their destruction. Part of it, however, depends on using the daughter of one of these wicked men--and the lady is innocent of causing any harm to anyone. What's Yukinojo to do? And, what is he to do when several ancillary characters blunder or wander into his plans?

There were several things I liked about the film. First, the various thieves who were no necessary to the film helped to give the film greater depth and, in an odd way, fun. Second, the film was made in many ways like the entire production was ALL part of a play. Often, using interesting lighting and sets, it looked as if the line between the off-stage and on-stage was often blurred. It made the film truly memorable. Overall, well worth seeing and gloriously artistic.