Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

[Sarah Maline]

Hi Markus,

It's pretty close to the corresponding scene in the kabuki play Kanjincho,
where instead of an Enoken-like character reacting we just have Togashi (the
border guard) gradually becoming aware that Benkei is fabricating the
subscription list.  As Benkei handles the scroll  the audience can see that
it's blank.  The kabuki-za has a good clear video out with Danjuro 12 as
Benkei in the entire play.

Sarah

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 10:22 AM, Nornes, Markus <amnornes at umich.edu> wrote:

> In Kurosawa's Men Who Tread, there is a scene where Okochi Denjiro takes
> out a scroll, unravels it and reads it. However, Enoken is thrown for a loop
> when he sees that the paper is completely blank, which the camera
> dramatically emphasizes with a wonderful truck up and around the scroll.
>
> Is this a convention of Noh or Kabuki performance, writing not being
> necessary because of the formalist nature of the dramaturgy? Or is it a
> reference to a specific play (or plays?)?
>
> I have heard of Chinese opera films with the same phenomenon. Can anyone
> think of other examples?
>
> Markus
>
>
>
>
>
> *
> A. M. Nornes
> Chair, Dept. of Screen Arts & Cultures
> Professor of Asian Film, Dept. of Asian Languages & Cultures
> Professor, School of Art & Design
> ===============================
> Department of Screen Arts & Cultures
> University of Michigan
> 6330 North Quad
> 105 South State Street
> Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1285*
> *----------------------------------------------*
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>


-- 
Sarah Maline, PhD
Chair, Department of Sound, Performance, and Visual Inquiry
Associate Professor of Art History
University of Maine Farmington
Farmington, Maine 04938
207.778.7321
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