Ooshikamura soudouki

I watched this a decade ago, when it first came out, and had the chance to re-watch it tonight. I'm glad I did.

I watched it in Japanese, and I don't know if decent subtitles for this movie exist; in any case it would be difficult for a Westerner to follow the story in all its details, insofar as it is intricately related to Kabuki and other aspects of traditional Japanese culture. But if you love the theater, and especially home-grown theater--plays put on by locals--and the concomitant camaraderie and intrigues, you might want to take a close look at this one.

In its relation to theater, Ooshikamura most closely parallels "A Midwinter's Tale", aka "In the Bleak Midwinter", Kenneth Branagh's tale of down-and-out actors putting on a Christmas performance of Hamlet. As in that film, there is no shortage of humorous asides and subplots, here most prominently involving two aging actors who suddenly show up during a rehearsal for the approaching traditional kabuki extravaganza. This poses a problem, because one of the two is the wife of the lead actor, and the other is the man who persuaded her to elope with him some 18 years previously. An awkward situation, to be sure, and it gets worse from there, and also funnier, before turning dramatic-tragic.

To sum up, rather wonderful, if you can suspend your disbelief at the prospect of a woman with dementia somehow, over the course of less than a week, making a complete recovery, such that she can play the lead role in the troupe's grand production. Seemed somewhat improbable to me, but.

Movie is based on an actual existing village in Nagano prefecture with same name as its Japanese title (Oshikamura Soudoki) Oshikamura. Over 300 villagers from the actual village appeared in this movie as extras.

This movie also became the final appearance of one of the greatest Japanese actor, Yoshio Harada.

Zen (Yoshio Harada) is a restaurant owner that serves deer meat in the village of Oshika. One day his old wife Takako (Michiyo Ookusu) appears with Osamu (Ittoku Kishibe). They eloped together 18 years ago, but came back because Takako lost her mind, and thinks Osamu is now Zen. Osamu asks Zen to take Takako back, and Zen accepts. The village has a 300 year old tradition of stage show that's a collaborative effort of the villagers. This year, they are working on the stage show, but one of the actors can't make it. Takako despite her insanity remembers all the script and she is used in the play. Takako regains some sanity, and everyone's life seems to be back on track, or is it ?

The movie is bit difficult to follow. This is because all the shots are taken at a distance, and you can't see the expression of the actors very well. There's no punctuation to the dialog that tells you when each important point is made. But there's humor and interesting cultural settings that makes a good backdrop for the story.

This movie was made for the Japanese audience and may be difficult to follow for audiences outside of Japan, but if you're an Asian movie fan, this is a good comedy drama that is entertaining to watch.