Enjo and Kinkakuji

[John Dougill]

I happen to have recently watched the two films based on Mishima's novel,
Kinkakuji.  The early one (1958) by Ichikawa Kon is clearly superior though
I can understand why it was remade it since so much is omitted in Enjo -
notably the whole sexual side of the novel (without which Mishima wouldn't
be Mishima)...  the woman Mizoguchi sees from Nanzenji doesn't even expose
her breast, though the remake takes every opportunity to show a close-up of
milk coming out and into the cup of the departing husband-soldier...  On the
other hand, the remake has Mizoguchi appear fairly good-looking and
relatively normal - what were they thinking!  By contrast, Ichikawa's
original makes the social isolation of the stuttering and withdrawn
Mizoguchi entirely credible...

I've run a google search but only found passing reference to the two films
on a university of michigan site about Mishima's novel.  I wonder if anyone
knows of a study of the two films, or even a review of the remake that
refers to Ichikawa's Enjo...


Side question - I wonder why Ichikawa named his film Enjo and not Kinkakuji.
Also in the film he coyly calls the temple by another name, though I noticed
that the English language brochure calls it quite clearly The Golden Temple.
Was he afraid of being sued, or worried about copyright or something....  Or
did he wish to distinguish it from Mishima's novel for some reson - in which
case how come Mishima gets one of the four credits for the script?