Okoto and Sasuke

Okoto and Sasuke

1935. Japan. Directed by Yasujiro Shimazu. With Kinuyo Tanaka, Kokichi Takada, Tatsuo Saito. "A relatively rare excursion for director Shimazu into the period film or jidai-geki (though not a samurai film), Okoto and Sasuke is based on the novel A Portrait of Shunkin (Shunkinsho) by Junichiro Tanizaki, later to be filmed by Daisuke Ito and Kaneto Shindo. Tanizaki himself was critical of the film, but it placed third in that year's Kinema Junpo Top Ten. It is both a remarkable drama, and, with its musical theme, a fascinating exploration of the new territory opened up to Japanese cinema by the coming of synchronised sound. Shimazu's largely understated directorial style is intriguingly at odds with the melodramatic premise of a film concerned with what Paul Coates terms 'extreme male masochism,' a theme which escalates into an climax which is both shocking in theme and startlingly avant-garde in technique. The great actress Kinuyo Tanaka gives one of her most assertive early performances in the role of a blind musician." In Japanese; English subtitles. 100 min.