bunraku in film

[Bill Thompson]

Chuck, Joanne, KineJapan,

The Kurisaki version of Sonezaki Shinju (Love Suicides at
Sonezaki), as I recall, was shot using the bunraku puppets in
wide-open fields and other natural settings, but did not
include actors.  This artistic rendering was made
just a couple of years after Shinoda's more celebrated version,
and the gifted Miyazaki was quite proud of his work
(I attended the same JS screening roughly twenty years ago).
It is too bad this Love Suicide has been so neglected.

Another film of interest--although it is done without puppets--is
Uchida Tomo's Courier from Hell/Lover's Exile.  The original Chikamatsu
play was originally written for bunraku, then adapted into kabuki.
Uchida's work, from the late 1950's, presents some of the
incidents which were later recounted in the play.  Uchida also
incorporates Chikamatsu into his film, responding to these events,
and thus treats the idea of artistic creativity.
The last part of this work includes footage of a kabuki
performance of the play itself.  (I haven't seen this one
in a couple of decades either.)

The best reference in English to bunraku and kabuki works and the
adaptation of their themes and plots in cinema
(although I suspect it does not answer Chuck's original question)
is Keiko I. McDonald's excellent Japanese Classical Theater in Films
(1994, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press).


Bill Thompson






From: Bernardi-Buralli <dburall1 at rochester.rr.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Re: bunraku in film

Wow!  A Nikkatsu pink film with bunraku puppets got my attention!

A film that might also be helpful is Kurisaki Midori's version of "Sonezaki
Shinju (Love Suicides at Sonezaki), photographed by Miyagawa Kazuo and using
puppets and handlers in a natural rather than theatrical setting. It was a
long time ago that I saw it, and I remember it as being, well, certainly
different. It's essentially the puppets "doing" the play, but not in the
usual stage setting. If it is of any use, I saw it at the NY Japan Society
sometime in the early 1980s (I have the film notes in front of me but
unfortunately no dates), with Miyagawa present for two screenings.

Joanne bernardi

From: Christine Marran <marran at umn.edu>
Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 00:32:03 -0500
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: bunraku in film


Hi Chuck,
Tanaka Noboru's 1972 Maruhi  Joro seme jigoku has gorgeous scenes with
bunraku dolls and humans, puppeteers, etc.  It is a Nikkatsu pink film.
Christine

Chuck Stephens wrote:
I've been writing something on Kitano's DOLLS, and have been trying to think
of other films which have used the actual puppets of the bunraku theater,
and not just the plays written for it by Chikamatsu. Shinoda's DOUBLE
SUICIDE is the only one that comes immediately to mind. (And am I even
recalling that correctly, or do the puppeteers in that film handle only
actual humans? I don't have a copy of the film with me here to check.)
Can anyone here think of other films that do use actual bunraku puppets
right off the top your heads?

many thanks
Chuck