butoh dancers-turned-actors

[Mark Nornes]

> I am not talking about the depiction of HIjikata in the movie which  
> Ogawa has (at least) partial control over.  Nor am I referring to  
> the depiction of village practices which may well be grounded in  
> materiality and not mystical (although the depiction of the  
> relationship of between the man and the Kannon statue may well be  
> termed as having an air of devotionality or mysticism to it).

Devotionality, sure. But mysticism? I guess it depends on what you  
mean. I'm curious how you read this sequence of the film. It sounds  
like you've given it a lot of thought, and Butoh is your thing,  
right? Are you writing about it?

> In this case of your comments relayed from the deshi, it is as if  
> Hijikata were a saint who among other powers could predict the  
> future and sense his own demise.

Actually, my understanding of the conversation (which, granted, was a  
long, long time ago) was that by the time of the filming he had some  
sense for the seriousness of his situation. Having had some close  
experience with cancer, I can tell you that it's one future you can  
predict!

But as for the unreliableness of deshi, a point well taken.  
Interestingly enough, I had the opposite problem with Ogawa. Most of  
his deshi were pretty pissed! This called for a different kind of  
suspicion.

Markus