Tearing Down the Fourth Wall in Youth of the Beast (1963)

While preparing my next article, here's a nice leftover from my article on Joe Shishido. There's a quick moment in Seijun Suzuki's Youth of the Beast (Yaju no seishun) (1963) where Joe Shishido walks by a Nikkatsu movie theater (the studio that made the movie) with a large marquee featuring Nikkatsu stars Yujiro Ishihara, Hideaki Nitani, Izumi Ashikawa and even Shishido himself!

UPDATE: Re-blogging on this blog isn't exactly what I want to do, but this is too incredible to not share. The next day after posting this small paragraph of an article on Facebook, I was informed by my Facebook friend Chuck Stephens that there's even a bit more to the movie theater story in Youth of the Beast. In the film, the yakuza use the area behind the movie theater's screen as their hideout leading to some surreal images of films playing in the background while Joe Shishido wields a shotgun. Well, that is a whole story in itself. The projected film shown in the scenes background is the Nikkatsu film The Man They Tried to Kill (Kimi wa nerawareteiru) (1960) which led to a whole story of former American Cinematheque programmer, Dennis Bartok, and the appearance of his mom, avant-garde filmmaker LeAnn Bartok, in the film. The whole story is too incredible to believe and must be read:

Gettin' Paid, Gettin' Paid: Japanese Actors in Commercials Pt. 1

It's not weird to see your favorite Hollywood actors pushing products on Japanese television (Lost in Translation (2003) had a whole plot point revolving around the idea). If you want to see any, do a search on YouTube and you can find several featuring actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicholas Cage, John Travolta, Audrey Hepburn and even the great Orson Welles. As an example, here's a favorite of mine in a series of commercials for Suntory Whiskey where Peter Falk (A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Wings of Desire (1987)) plays a bartender:


(Uploaded onto YouTube by user callfromthepast3)

But Japanese actors pull in their own work too. It might not offer the room to stretch their acting chops and show off their abilities, but if it means a paycheck, then why not have some fun and do a few commercials?

Ace no Joe is Style!

There is something about the style of Japanese acting that still keeps it different and fresher than so many other cultures years later. The style can often be over-the-top and beyond real, but this isn't to say that the characters become caricatures. Especially in genre cinema, they often push the boundaries of what's emotion with sharp delivery, quickly changing moods and actions, imposing gestures and by having slightly self-conscious personas without ever being narcissistic or self-absorbed. Just see the performance of men like Bunta Sugawara, Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kei Sato, Tatsuya Fuji and you'll see a certain type of acting method that spills out over all sides of the frame.

In an era of post-Actor's Studio Hollywood where method acting existed for the idea of achieving higher realism and emotion from the scrip the actor was given often at the cost of their performances teetering on the border of become over-blown and pompous, the Japanese actors achieve reality with their comic book style. By being a film, it no longer belong to reality and people already assume their disbelief and extend to their imaginations what the director wants to show them. It seems to be a continuation of kyōgen or kabuki theater where style is used as a way to connect to the audience and understands that theater (and in this case cinema) is not real life.

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! (Tantei jimusho 2-3: Kutabare akutodomo) (1963) Dir. Seijun Suzuki

Nikkatsu Movie Music - Joe Shishido

Nikkatsu Eiga Ongakushu Star Series Joe Shishido

In 2008, Nikkatsu released compilation albums based either on their famous directors (Seijun Suzuki, Kon Ichikawa), actors (Yujiro Ishihara, Akira Kobayashi) or other themes (Nikkatsu New Akushon, Stray Cat Rock series) and I've been doing my best to get my hands on them, but I could just never find the one on Joe Shishido. While preparing my first real article for this site that's all about Mr. Joe Shishido, I finally did it and found the album. I had to do some deep scouring in the nether regions of the internet to find this album, but now it's mine to listen to anytime! It can be yours too!