Tag - jidaigeki

 
 

JIDAIGEKI

Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 10, 2021
For Japanese men, perhaps money really can buy happiness?
A survey shows that men paid higher salaries (surprise, surprise) have felt less lonely during the pandemic, while a new film group plans to revisit Japan's samurai past.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 1, 2017
Hiroki Matsukata: a gangster farewell
Hiroki Matsukata, who died at age 74 on Jan. 21, may have been born into an acting family — his father was jidaigeki (historical drama) actor Jushiro Konoe — but in his yakuza films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s, Matsukata's portrayals of feral-but-charming hoods seemed to boil up off the streets, not a studio lot.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2016
Japan's epic samurai dramas are in a tight spot
Japanese can roughly be split into two camps: those equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of history and those who have only a vague idea of who the samurai were or that a Shogun once lived in what is now the Imperial Palace. The history geeks on one side and those who couldn't care less on the other.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2015
Japan through the lens of its film genres
As a new reporter for a movie trade magazine, I quickly learned that every film has its genre — even ones that don't play by genre rules. The industry slices genre-straddling films into discrete categories: action, comedy, sci-fi, etc. Call it crude, but this system serves a purpose: If you're a buyer looking for horror specifically, you can safely ignore anything labeled otherwise.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2014
Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno)
The jidaigeki (samurai period drama) is dying, we have been told again and again. Topknots and swords have become rare sights on television, while Japanese studios, which once devoted nearly half their production to the genre, now essay only the occasional chanbara (swordplay) film, with mixed box-office results.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014
The man who lives for the art of dying
Interviewing Seizo Fukumoto, the star of Ken Ochiai's backstage drama "Uzumasa Limelight," I wished I had brought a video camera, instead of my voice recorder and notepad. As he talks, this veteran kirare-yaku — an actor whose forte is being cut down with a sword in jidaigeki (samurai period dramas) — illustrates his points with sharp hand movements and sound effects, (with the sound of a body hitting the tatami being a loud "Ban!"). It was as though miniature sword fights were unfolding during the interview.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on