Shin Heike Monogatari (film)
Shin Heike Monogatari 新・平家物語 | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kenji Mizoguchi |
Produced by | Masaichi Nagata |
Starring | |
Cinematography |
|
Edited by | Kanji Suganuma |
Music by | |
Distributed by | Daiei Film |
Release date | September 21, 1955 (Japan) |
Running time | 108 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Shin Heike Monogatari (新・平家物語, lit. "New Tale of the Heike") is a 1955 Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is based on a prose version by Eiji Yoshikawa of a Japanese epic poem, The Tale of the Heike.[note 1] It is Mizoguchi's second and last film in color, the other being Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Yōkihi) of the same year.
Critical reaction[]
Kevin B Lee in a 2009 review for Slant Magazine found it a rather tentative attempt at color filmmaking and a self-conscious "prestige" picture, with Mizoguchi's usual themes present but at odds with the desire for spectacle and action of a samurai movie.[1] After the American release of the film in 1964, Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote that the plot was "subordinate to the decor".[2]
Various critics have suggested that the film's setting in the Heian period, a politically unstable time, and its concern with the transition of power reflect the situation of Post-occupation Japan, when the film was made in the 1950s.[3]
Cast[]
- Ichikawa Raizō VIII as Taira no Kiyomori
- as Taira no Tadamori, father of Kiyomori
- Yoshiko Kuga as Taira no Tokiko, wife of Kiyomori
- as , brother of Tokiko
- Tamao Nakamura as , sister of Tokiko
- Michiyo Kogure as Empress consort Fujiwara no Taishi
- Eijirō Yanagi as Retired Emperor Shirakawa
- as Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi
- Koreya Senda as Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Yorinaga, brother of Tadamichi
- Kunitarō Sawamura as Jokū
Notes[]
References[]
- (in Japanese) http://www.raizofan.net/link4/movie1/heike.htm
- ^ Lee, Kevin B (January 29, 2009). "952 (54). Shin heike monogatari / New Tales of the Taira Clan (1955, Kenji Mizoguchi)". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ^ Archer, Eugene (September 21, 1964). "Movie Review Tales of the Taira Clan (1955) Beauty From Japan". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ^ "Le héros sacrilège (1955) de Kenji Mizoguchi". L'Oeil sur L'Ecran. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
External links[]
- Japanese-language films
- 1955 films
- Japanese films
- Jidaigeki films
- Samurai films
- Films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
- Daiei Film films
- Films produced by Masaichi Nagata
- 1950s Japanese film stubs