Yukinojô henge (1963)

Yukinojo, a Kabuki actor, seeks revenge by destroying the three men who caused the deaths of his parents. Also involved are the daughter of one of Yukinojo's targets, two master thieves, and a swordsman who himself is out to kill Yukinojo.

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 | year 1836 | love | kimono | japan | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

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 Yukinojô henge: Daiippen dainihen (1935)

User Reviews

Revenge of a Kabuki Actor

Revenge of a Kabuki Actor (1963)

*** (out of 4)

Japanese film about a Kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa) specializing playing female roles who gets a shot at seeking revenge against the three men he feels responsible for his parents deaths. The first part of his plan is to get one of their daughters (Ayako Wakao) to fall in love with him. I had never heard of this film before reading Martin's review a week or so ago and I can't say I enjoyed the film as much as he did but it was a visual treat and I'm glad I caught up with it. On a visual level this thing is damn near a masterpiece with some terrific cinematography as well as some very imaginative shots and ways to tell a story. There are many scenes that pop out but one of the most memorable features Hasegawa playing the actor as well as the thief. The thief climbs up on a roof to talk about the actor as we then get a shot of the actor walking away. I think this segment could have and would have come off quite silly in ninety-nine movies out of a hundred but this is the one case where it works perfectly. Hasegawa himself is brilliant in his role as it really seemed like he was a woman. While watching him trying to seduce the young woman there were many times where I forgot he was a man and this added an even more surreal nature to the film. I was also highly impressed with Wakao. The opening sequence on the stage is another treat for the eyes. If I had one problem with the film it's that it took me nearly fifty-minutes to really get caught up in the story. I'm sure a second viewing would probably take care of this but it did take me a while to take in everything that was going on.