Kurosawa-scripted film

[Stephen Cremin]

ENOKEN NO APPARE ISSHIN TASUKE
Japan, 1944, 69'

Dir: SAEKI Kiyoshi.  Script: KUROSAWA Akira.  Photo (B&W): YAMAZAKI 
Kazuo.  Production Design: KATO Yasuhide.  Music: SUZUKI Seiichi.  
Producer: MOTOKI Sojiro for Toho.  Cast: ENOMOTO Kenichi, TODOROKI 
Yukiko, KISHII Akira, TOKUGAWA Musei, HATORI Toshiko, SUGAI Ichiro, 
YANAGIDA Teiichi.
===

It's a Toho film produced in 1944 and released in early 1945.  I don't 
know if it still exists.  Last time I checked (a couple of years ago), 
it wasn't available on video in Japan and there isn't a print at the 
National Film Centre.  Perhaps someone on this list knows better.

The official title is ENOKEN NO APPARE ISSHIN TASUKE but one would need 
to see a print to confirm that, and even then there's a debate as to 
whether "Enoken no" is purely stylistic and not really part of the 
title.  (It's not uncommon practise to list the main actor in the title, 
notably "Enoken no" and "Hibari no" for Enomoto Ken'ichi and Misora 
Hibari films respectively.)

Closest to an official English title I've come across is BRAVO ISSHIN 
TASUKE without any punctuation.  But BRAVO! ISSHIN TASUKE sounds 
completely reasonable.  Inagaki Hiroshi made a film about ISSHIN TASUKE 
in 1930 with Kataoka Chiezo in the title role and Sawashima Tadashi cast 
Nakamura Kinnosuke in a whole series of films between 1958 and 1963.

Stephen


On Wednesday, April 17, 2002, at 04:18 PM, Jim Beaver wrote:

> I've run across a reference to a 1945 film written by Akira Kurosawa,
> entitled TENBARE ISHIN TASUKE (translated as BRAVO! TENBARE ISHIN).  The
> IMDb lists the film, however, under the title APPARE ISSHIN TASUKE
> (translated as BRAVA, TASUKE ISSHIN!).  Is one title more accurate than 
> the
> other?  Is one translation more accurate than the other?
>
> Jim Beaver
> Nawyecka Productions
>