[KineJapan] English-language benshi?

[Markus Nornes]

I was so busy after taping that I never watched it and had no idea they
added a Koyata benshi sequence! Her English is better than the other
benshi, but her generally overt style is not my favorite.  One of the
specific intentions of bringing Kataoka to Ann Arbor for a year was so he
could work on his English and by extension English setsumei. It didn't go
far.

I have done a number of gigs with Ichiro where I do a little English
*setsumei* to give audiences a flavor of the performance in their native
language. And I always do different kinds of benshi *setsumei* for my
students (I know Aaron does it, and I'm curious if others do as well).
Students love it. But I am always struck by how awkward it is. One palpably
senses how the silent film narration of benshi cleaves closely to the
cadences, grammatical structures, and exclamative styles of Japanese
language and specifically the approach to performance from popular
storytelling/*wagei.*  English will never cut it, don't you think?

Markus
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