Rintaro in the land of benshis
Posted on 19.10.2023
Animation giant Rintaro drew his inspiration from scripts by the forgotten filmmaker Yamanaka, whose comedy from the 1930s we are delighted to rediscover.
The first episode of this story gets off to a bad start: a filmmaker is killed in the war. He was Japanese, his name was Sadao Yamanaka, and he died of dysentery in 1938, aged 29. He had been promised a great future after making 24 films in 6 years (!), skilfully integrating genre film with the reality of ordinary Japanese people. Only a trio of Yamanaka's films have survived, including the delightful comedy Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo, in which people fight over a worthless pot containing a treasure map. The object sent as a gift is first deemed as too pitiful, then, just as they are about to return it, precious and unobtainable.
Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo, in addition to this Labiche-style plot, features an irresistible character whose adventures were hugely popular in Japanese cinema at the time: Tange Sazen, a one-eyed, one-armed samurai who was introduced in popular literature at the end of the 1920s. After appearing on screen as the hero of some very serious samurai films, this is the first time he has starred in a comedy: he is now a grumpy, vaguely misanthropic ronin, protecting a gambling and pleasure parlour.
He plays the tough guy, but he's got his heart in the right place, ready to look after a little orphan, but also capable, in a brilliant scene, of taking out a mercenary lured by money in a matter of seconds, all without the kid getting scared. Sazen is played by the great Denjirō Ōkōchi, who created the character in the cinema, and here he is, no doubt at Yamanaka's express request, a Sharaku-style caricature. Moreover, the way in which all the male characters are dominated by women is quite relishable.
Nezumikozo Jirokichi, 2023 © Bac Films
The second episode is heart-warming. Most of Yamanaka's films have disappeared, but not their scripts. And now the other octogenarian giant of Japanese animation, Shigeyuki Hayashi, aka Rintaro (born seventeen days after Hayao Miyazaki!), has decided to pay tribute to the departed master with an anime adaptation of one of the adventures of Jirokichi the Rat, the Japanese Robin Hood, of which Yamanaka filmed three episodes. A former partner of the brilliant mangaka Osamu Tezuka, Rintaro is famous for his prolific animated series, including Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978-1979), as well as feature films such as Galaxy Express 999 (1979) or Metropolis (2001).
Produced with the help of Katsuhiro Otomo (author of Akira) and Yoshinori Kanemori (creator of the animations for One-Punch Man and Hunter x Hunter), Nezumikozo Jirokichi (literally Jirokichi the thief) is a wonderful medium-length “ligne claire” film that imagines Sadao Yamanaka, asleep in his director's chair, dreaming of his film… It’s a silent film narrated by a benshi, storytellers who used to perform in Japanese cinemas. A marvel of graphics, rhythm and fantasy. Rintaro explains: "My team and I wanted to pay tribute to Yamanaka through this short, animated film by adapting his script Nezumikozo Jirokichi: Edo No Maki. On the battlefield where he had been sent during the war, he wrote in his diary: ‘I would be a tiny bit sad if Humanity and Paper Balloons was my last work.’ If I can give him this little film, then I'll be 'a tiny bit happy'". And the viewers ? ...Enormously happy!
Aurélien Ferenczi
SCREENINGS
Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo by Sadao Yamanaka (Tange Sazen yowa: Hyakuman ryono tsubo, 1935, 1h32), preceded by Nezumikozo Jirokichi by Rintaro (2023, 24min)
Institut Lumière (Hangar) – Thursday, 19 October at 8.45pm
UGC Confluence – Friday, 20 October at 3pm
Cinéma Comoedia – Saturday, 21 October at 10.45am
