A Restored Film of 溝口 健二 to Show in NYC

choi

Glenn Kenny, A Director’s Artistry and Empathy Radiate in Restoration. New York Times, Dec 5, 2015.
www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/movie ... ry-and-empathy.html

Note:
(a) Japanese-Eng.lish dictionary:
* mizo 溝 【みぞ】 (n): "ditch; drain; gutter; trench"
* saka 坂(P); 阪 【さか】 (n) slope; hill
* Naniwa 浪花; 浪速; 浪華 【なにわ】 (n): "Naniwa (former name for Osaka region)"  (The ja.wikipedia.org has the forth kanji combination 難波, in addition.)
* mei-sei-kakkaku/ mei-sei-kakukaku  名声赫々; 名声赫赫 【めいせいかっかく; めいせいかくかく】 (adj): "of great renown"  (The "kakkaku" is quick pronunciation of "kakukaku.")
* zatsu-roku 雑録 【ざつろく】 (n): "miscellaneous records"
* u-getsu 雨月 【うげつ】 (n): "(arch[aic]) being unable to see the (harvest) moon because of rain"

choi

(b) "The Japanese director Kenji MIZOGUCHI 溝口 健二 (1898-1956) * * * it was only with his 1936 feature 'Osaka Elegy' 浪華 悲歌 that, by some accounts, Mr Mizoguchi felt he had finally found his artistic footing."
(i) For the definition of Naniwa, see (a).  
(ii) Osaka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka
(section 2 Etymology)

Quote: "In 645, Emperor Kō-toku [孝徳 天皇 (reign 645–654), who started 大化改新 the next year, in 646] built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace 難波 長柄 豊碕宮 in what is now Osaka making it the then-capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa, and this name and derivations of it are still in use for districts in central Osaka such as Naniwa (浪速) and Namba (難波).
(iii) In modern time, "saka" is mainly represented by 坂 -- see (a) -- except in Osaka.
(iv) In present-day Osaka, Naniwa is a ward 浪速区
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naniwa-ku,_Osaka
(view map only)
, whereas 難波 is a neighborhood, bestriding 浪速区 and a neighboring ward. (難波 -- pronounced namba, both kanji in Chinese pronunciations. 波 is pronounced 'ha' but softened to 'ba' because the kanji is placed at the middle (not the beginning) of the combination of words.
(v) The ja.wikipedia.org explains:
(A) that the place was called 浪速 -- and pronounced 'namihaya' (where 'nami' and 'haya" are -- yes, present tense -- pronunciations of 浪 and 速, respectively. But the old pronunciation "namihaya" was corrupted to "naniwa."
(B) and that Osaka's old name was 浪速, because "周辺の潮流が速" the tides in surrounding area was swift/ rapid.

choi

(c) " '[The Story of the Last] Chrysanthemum 残菊物語,' [1939] set in late 19th-century Japan, tells the story of Kikunosuke ([played by] Shotaro Hanayagi), an egotistic Kabuki actor, and Otoku お徳 (Kakuko MORI 森 赫子), who sacrifices her own happiness to help him achieve greatness.
(i) Kiku-no-suke 菊之助 (a given name; the character's surname was 尾上, which does not show up in the NYT review.)  
(A) "The "kiku" is 菊's Chinese pronunciation. As the flower and plant came from China, 菊 has no Japanese pronunciation, which is the indigenous pronunciation before introduction of Chinese culture to Japan. The ja.wikipedia.org says: "中国から奈良時代末か平安時代初めに導入されたと推定される."
translation: It is estimated that [the plant] was brought in towards the end of Nara period [710 - 794, capital at 平城京 (present-day Nara 奈良)] or at the beginning of Heian period [794–1185; named after the capital city of 平安京, or modern Kyōto]
(B) Japanese Names. In Anthony J Bryant, Nihon Zatsuroku An Online Japanese Miscellany, undated
www.sengokudaimyo.com/miscellany/names.html
("Names ending in ~suke or~nosuke (actually, either element was written with a variety of kanji [介輔佑助弼佐]), ~emon, or ~zaemon 左衛門 [left guard of a gate], though historical-sounding and aristocratic as they are, are in large part post-Period [the last period in Japan is Edo period 江戸時代], as they came from a habit of naming people after titles (~suke was deputy governor, and ~emon was a guard title). There were a few famous people in the sengoku period 戦国時代 [c 1467 – c 1603] who bore such names, but the fashion really took off in the Edo period. Today, they are generally considered quaint")
* For "zatsuroku," see (a).
* Regarding “~emon.”  右衛門 should be u-e-mon, but occasionally simplified to 'e-mon']
* Regarding "suke" as deputy governor. See 四等官
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/四等官
(日本の四等官制: In Japan 7世紀後半 - 8世紀初頭, modeled after 唐律令 [唐の四等官制: 長官・通判官・判官・主典], four ranks in decreasing order: 長官・次官（すけ [pronounced 'suke']）・判官・主典)
(C) After Meiji Restoration, (in Japan) 次官 is pronounced "jikan" (which is XChinese pronunciation, as opposed to “suke” which was Japanese pronunciation of the same kanji pair). Ministries 次官 were formed, whose officials were 大臣> 政務次官 > 事務次官. In 2000, 政務次官 was abolished, thus replaced with the new ranking: 大臣 > 副大臣 > 大臣政務官 > 次官 (which is equivalent to the previous 事務次官).
(ii) There indeed was one Shōtarō HANAYAGIi 花柳 章太郎
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/花柳章太郎
(1894 - 1965; 本名： 青山 章太郎; an actor who played actress; 人間国宝; performed in the 1939 film 残菊物語)

花柳 in Japan can be
(A) Hanayagi (Japanese pronunciations for both kanji): an ancient surname
(B) ka-ryū (both Chinese pronunciations): about sex.
(iii)
(A) Otoku お徳: The hiragana お, pronounced 'o,' is an honorific; further, the 'toku' is Chinese pronunciation of 徳.
(B) The 'kaku" is Chinese pronunciation for 赫. See (a).

choi

(d) Otoku’s “desire is to help the arrogant actor [Kikunosuke; Kiku for short], who is portrayed at the story’s outset as a dim, pampered hack more concerned with juggling geishas than learning the family business — his adoptive father heads up a renowned Kabuki troupe. Otoku works as a wet nurse for Kiku’s family, and so it’s not her place to even speak to him, let alone offer the withering assessment of his work that hits Kiku like a head-butt.”
(i) hack (n): "a writer or journalist producing dull, unoriginal work"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/hack
(ii) head-butt (v, n): "to ​hit someone ​violently on the ​head or in the ​face using the ​front of ​your ​head"
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/head-butt

(e) "While 'Osaka Elegy' and 'Sisters of the Gion 祇園の姉妹 [1956],' the two Mizoguchi pictures of this period that have been most widely seen in the West, were relatively brisk features, 'Chrysanthemum,' at nearly two and a half hours, shows the director working in an expansive mode, one that would flower even more fully with his postwar masterpieces such as 'The Life of Oharu,' 'Ugetsu' and 'Sansho the Bailiff.' "
(i) Gion  祇園
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gion
(ii) The Life of Oharu  西鶴一代女
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Oharu
(a 1952 black-and-white film, based on a [1686] novel [好色一代女, by 井原 西鶴 (who had written 好色一代男 four years earlier])
(iii)
(A) Ugetsu (full name at the end, toward the otehr parenthesis; a 1953 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and based on stories in Ueda Akinari's book of the same name [Ugetsu Monogatari (雨月物語])  en.wikipedia.org
(B) Ugetsu Monogatari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugetsu_Monogatari
(by the Japanese author UEDA Aki-nari 上田 秋成, first published in 1776l section 1 Name: 瞿佑 牡丹燈記)
(C) For the definition of "ugetsu," see (a).
(iv) Sanshō the Bailiff 山椒大夫
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansho_the_Bailiff
(1954)

The “ta-yū 太夫; 大夫 【たゆう】” was some kind of steward, a ranking of an official.

choi

(f) "The restoration [of the film] nevertheless speaks to the viewer with new clarity. One can now, for instance, see the matching pattern design of the deerstalker cap and cloak that Kiku wears as he catches the train to Osaka from Tokyo. (Emulations of such Western dress were common during Japan’s Meiji era, in which this film is set.)  Watching this version, I was struck not just by newly visible detail in the frame itself, but also the spectacularly effective nuances of performance from the entire cast, particularly the leads. Look for the mincing walk Mr Hanayagi bestows on the callow Kiku as he negotiates the theater and the geisha house early in the story."
(i) deerstalker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deerstalker
( The deerstalker's main features are a pair of bills or visors worn in front and rear)
(ii) "mincing walk"
(A) mincing (adj): "affectedly dainty or delicate <taking mincing steps>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mincing
(B) affected (adj): "artificial, pretentious, and designed to impress <the gesture appeared both affected and stagy>"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... ffected#affected__2
  affect (vt): "to put on a pretense of :  FEIGN <affect indifference, though deeply hurt>"
  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affect