A Retrospective of Cinematographer Kazuo MIYAGAWA in Manhattan

choi

David Mermelstein, Seeing Is Believing; A rare retrospective honors cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, whose credits include 'Rashomon.' Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/seeing-is-believing-1523393958

Note:
(a) This is a review of films.
Kazuo Miyagawa: Japan's Greatest Cinematographer. Japan Society, Apr 13-28, 2018.
https://www.japansociety.org/page/programs/film/miyagawa

Kazuo MIYAGAWA 宮川 一夫 (1908 – 1999)
(b) "Miyagawa's reputation in the West stems primarily from his having shot movies by three demigods [directors] of Japanese cinema's golden age: Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. But he was honing his craft long before these associations, as the musical comedy 'Singing Lovebirds 鴛鴦歌合戦' (1939), directed by Masahiro MAKINO  マキノ 雅弘 [1908-1993; 本名: 牧野 正唯 Masachika MAKINO], and Hiroshi INAGAKI's 稲垣 浩 [1905-1980; 本名: 稲垣 浩二郎] gently sentimental 1943 version of 'The Rickshaw Man 無法松の一生 [meaning: The Life of Wild Matsu -- from the Web]' will attest [The same director also had a 1958 remake of the same title; because the first version went through many cuts by occupation force after World War II]."
(c) "Not until 'Rashōmon 羅生門' (1950) [based on 1015 芥川龍之介's short story of the same title], his first collaboration with ]Akira] KUROSAWA 黑澤 明, did the cinematographer, who died in 1999 at age 91, achieve real renown. * * * The pair did not work together again till the enormously entertaining Japanese western 'Yōjinbō 用心棒 [Japanese noun for bouncer or bodyguard]' (1961)"

(d) "For [Yasujirō] OZU 小津 安二郎 [1903 – 1963], he shot just one film, but tellingly it was the notoriously demanding director's most beautiful color picture, 'Floating Weeds 浮草' (1959), a sublimely Chekhovian comedy centered on an egocentric kabuki actor; the eternally patient former lover who bore him a son; and the actor's current mistress, a high-strung actress. The film's rigorous but unfussy composition—every frame could hang in a gallery—has long been acclaimed"
(i) Anton Chekhov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov
(1860 – 1904; Russian)
(ii)
(A) high-strung (adj): "American  a high-strung person becomes angry or emotional very quickly"
https://www.macmillandictionary. ... merican/high-strung
(B) high-strung
https://www.etymonline.com/word/high-strung
(iii) unfussy (adj)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unfussy

(e) "The cinematographer also enjoyed fruitful associations with Kon ICHIKAWA 市川 崑 and Masahiro SHINODA 篠田 正浩. For the former, he shot the at once languid and suffocating 'Conflagration 炎上' (1958), based on an angry-young-man novel by Yukio Mishima 三島 由紀夫 [pen name of 平岡 公威]; the droll, black sex comedy 'Odd Obsession 鍵 [which in Japan means 'a key' opposite a lock]' (1959); 'Her Brother おとうと [pronunciation: otōto -- the Japanese pronunciation for kanji 弟]' (1960), which pioneered a form of desaturated color; and the model sports documentary 'Tokyo Olympiad 東京オリンピック [a documentary]' (1965). For the latter, examples include 'Silence 沈黙' (1971), a story of Catholic missionaries that Martin Scorsese recently retold [Silence (2016); both films were based on 遠藤 周作's 1966 novel of the same title], and the heartbreaking 'Ballad of Orin はなれ瞽女おりん' (1977), which traces the misfortunes of an itinerant blind girl—ironically one of Miyagawa’s most lushly photographed movies."
(i) Roger Ebert, The Ballad of Orin. RogerEbert.com, Jan 10, 1980.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ballad-of-orin

Read only the second half, which starts with: "Shinoda's film is rooted in Japan, circa 1918."
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary *the first is MINE, and the rest are from Jim Breen online Japanese dictionary:
* hanare 離れ 【はなれ】: "detached, separated"
   ^  hanare-jima 離れ島 【はなれじま】 (n): "outlying island"
   ^ The corresponding verb form is hanareru 離れる 【はなれる】 (v): "(1) to be separated; to be apart;  (2) to leave; to go away; (3) to leave (a job, etc.); to quit; to give up; (4) to lose connection with; to drift away"
* goze 瞽女 【ごぜ】 (n): "blind female beggar who sings or plays shamisen"
* shinjū 心中 【しんじゅう】 (n,v): "double suicide; lovers suicide"
(iii) Another example of 離れ is a detached room or house. See 離れ
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/離れ
(photo caption: "老舗旅館の離れの客室（琴平花壇）")

my translation: a detached guest room of an old-line hotel, which is 琴平花壇

* old-line (adj)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/old-line

(f) "But no collaboration was more essential to Miyagawa (or vice-versa) than his eight-picture relationship with [Kenji] MIZOGUCHI 溝口 健二. Their most famous, arguably greatest, efforts remain the widely lauded 'Ugetsu short for 'Tales of Ugetsu 雨月物語 (which is Japanese title)']' (1953) and 'Sanshō the Bailiff 山椒大夫' [(1954). * * * Much the same can be said of the comparatively unfamiliar 'A Story From Chikamatsu 近松物語' (1954) * * * Completed shortly after 'Sansho,' it, too, is a period piece 時代劇 in which tragedy befalls those who deserve it least—in this case the wife of a successful printer and his chief apprentice, whose lives unravel in surprising ways thanks to a series of unintended consequences. Like the film's extraordinarily simple score, the cinematography is retrained yet potent, casting an unbreakable spell in which light and darkness, town and country play against each other. And never has a bamboo grove looked more fetching in moonlight than it does here."
(i) The film 山椒大夫 (where 大夫 was title of Japanese officials -- originating from China) was based on a 1915 short story of the same title by MORI Ōgai 森 鴎外 (the pen name of MORI Rintaro 森 林太郎, who day job was army surgeon; take notice Japanese romanization has letter R/r, but not L/ l).
(ii) Chikamatsu was the surname of a Japanese playwright. This particular kabuki play (and then film) will be discussed in the next posting. But here is a PUPPET play of Chikamatsu about another love story (based on a true event), which has nothing to do with the film festival under review.

Michael Hoffman, Till Death Do Us Unite: Japan's Dark Tales of Love. Japan Times, Mar 17, 2018
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/new ... ns-dark-tales-love/
("In 1703 two lovers, Toku-bei 徳兵衛 [25 years old] and O-hatsu お初 [21] by name, committed suicide together in the Sonezaki forest in Osaka. Barely a month later their real-life drama was on stage, Chikamatsu having shaped it into the great puppet play 'Sonezaki 曾根崎 Shinjū 心中' ('The Love Suicides at Sonezaki'), * * * Tokubei is a seller of soy sauce, Ohatsu a prostitute. They love each other but Ohatsu has been purchased, in effect, by another customer. What can the penniless Tokubei do? Nothing, and as for Ohatsu, she has no more control over her own life and body than a slave would")
(A) The forest was in present-day 大阪府 (摂津国 西成郡 [both are former names]) 曾根崎村.
(B) For definition of 心中, see (e)(ii).
(C) The 'toku" and "hatsu" are Chinese pronunciations of kanji 徳 and 初, respectively.