Kabuki-yakushya: Kataoka Nizaemon

Kabuki-yakushya: Kataoka Nizaemon (Kataoka Nizaemon, Kabuki actor), by Sumiko Haneda, one of the most celebrated Japanese documentary directors, can be considered as an unprecedented feat in the history of Japanese cinema. The fruit of an effort that spanned eight years, the film runs for just under eleven hours. Kataoka Nizaemon (1903-1994), a famous Kabuki actor, first stepped onto the stage at the age of two and didn’t stop until he lost his sight in his later years. This film is the result of his meeting with an exceptional documentary filmmaker, Sumiko Haneda, who made her career at the famous Iwanami Productions before having her films produced by her husband, Mitsuru Kudo. Just like a kuroko – stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre who dress all in black to be invisible – the camera follows the actor during his stage performances, behind the scenes, in his rehearsal studio and with his family, for a masterpiece that captures, in the finest detail, not only the depth of his art as actor, but also his personal charms as an individual. This documentary, rarely shown in its entirety even in Japan, was screened abroad for the first time for Japonismes 2018.