Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 03/31/25

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Monday, March 31, 2025

Demon Pond (Masahiro Shinoda, 1979)

Tamasaburo Bando in Demon Pond

Cast: Tamasaburo Bando, Go Kato, Tsutomo Yamazaki, Hisashi Igawa, Fujio Tokita, Hatsuo Yamaya, Dai Kanai, Koji Nanbara, Toru Abe, Yatsuko Tan'ami, Shigeru Yazaki, Jun Hanamura. Screenplay: Tsutomu Tamara, Haruhiko Mimura, based on a play by Kyoka Izumi. Cinematography: Masao Kosugi, Noritaka Sakamotu. Art direction: Setsu Asakura, Kiyoshi Awazu, Yutaka Yokoyama. Music: Isao Tomita.

Masahiro Shinoda's fusion of cinema and kabuki, Demon Pond, affords us the opportunity to witness the art of Tamasaburo Bando, the famous onnagata, a male actor specializing in female roles, who appeared primarily on stage. He takes two roles: Yuri, the wife of Akira Hagiwara (Go Kato), and the dragon princess Shirayuki, who dwells under enchantment in the pond of the film's title. If she's ever released from the spell, the pond will inundate the village below. Akira and Yuki have taken it on themselves to remind the princess of the spell that binds her by ringing a bell three times a day. Unfortunately, the arrival of a traveler (Tsutomo Yamazaki) from the outside world who is an old friend of Akira sets in motion a series of events that end in calamity. It's a splendidly acted, well-told fable, enhanced by an eerie electronic score by Isao Tomita that includes themes from Debussy and Mussorgsky, and concluding with a cataclysm of special effects.