DVD: Izumo no Okuni

Was hand-sewing like a fiend yesterday, so I sat down and did a marathon of Izumo no Okuni, a six-episode NHK historical drama about the woman who founded Kabuki.

While Kabuki artists are now all male, the Kabuki dancers were originally female. It wasn't until some time later, during the Tokugawa era, that women were banned from performing the art and it fell into the realm of men. (It was a question of public morals, strangely similar to the ban of women from the English stage for a time).

While this is a historical drama, it is actually based off of a novel and takes a lot of liberties. But here's the basic plot:

Spoilers in the following paragraphs. Not sure how to white them out? Anyway, I'll put them in a block so you'll know where they end:

A foundling young girl named Okuni (Kikukawa Rei), whose parents died while trying to run away together. The villagers who found the dying mother and baby wanted to leave the child, but an old woman insisted on taking her, since the mother had died while giving her life. She was adopted into the old woman's family and raised alongside their own daughters, but she faced a lot of discrimination in her village because of the actions of her parents. Okuni swore to the old woman that she would never become like her mother.

Years later, Okuni and her sisters are going off to the city to raise money for their local shrine (Izumo jinja) by dancing. She is betrothed to a local man, Kyuzo (Tsuda Kanji), who isn't too keen on her leaving. She isn't in love with him, but agrees to his advances so that neither of them will be lonely while she is gone. (Also, it's not like she has a whole lot of choice...) Okuni promises Kyuzo and also her youngest sister, Okiku, that she will return to the village.

The sisters, accompanied by their father, go off to the shrine. There, they encounter Master Baian, who basically disses them until he sees Okuni dance. Okuni seems to be touched by the heavens when she goes into her dancing, and it affects everyone around her. Baian takes the group in for training. It is at his home that she meets Sankuro (my boy Sakai Masato), a drummer and singer who becomes her lover and own personal Svengali

Despite their love, Sankuro will not let Okuni tell anyone, because Master Baian doesn't like his artists getting involved with one another. When the sisters want to go back to Izumo, Okuni talks them into staying and making a tour, saying that they can make a lot of money and get nice clothes, etc. The father ends up going home to Izumo with only one of the sisters and the rest stay with Okuni and Sankuro.

Sankuro, in his own way, does love Okuni, but he is ambitious and pushes the troop unmercifully. They become quite popular among the common people, but that's not enough for him--he wants to be acknowledged as the Best in the World. He thinks Okuni can do it, but she has to be seen by the "right people". A long-running argument begins between Okuni and Sankuro concerning this. She dances to make people happy and couldn't care less who they were.

After a falling-out with Master Baian, the troop must survive on its own. Around this time, Okuni finds out that Sankuro has another woman that he was seeing. He casts the other woman aside in favor of Okuni, but the woman warns Okuni that Sankuro will eventually cast her aside as well. Okuni refuses to believe this, thinking that as long as she dances, Sankuro will stay by her side.

The politics of the late Sengoku era affect the daily lives of the common people, and artists are no exception. Attempts are made to freeze the social status of the populace, and the artists, who were not listed, have no idea where they stand in this new society. Sankuro decides to build a theatre by the Gojou bridge so that the Shogun can see their performance as he goes by. But the plan backfires--Hideyoshi doesn't like the dances and considers them an eyesore. The troop is forced to tear down their theater and open another one in a less-fashionable part of town. There they flourish.

At this point, younger sister Okiku comes to join the troop. She is happy to see Okuni again, but resentful that Okuni did not keep her promise to return to the village. She also is jealous of Okuni's talent and tries to upstage her. Eventually, she manages to seduce Sankuro away from Okuni, who is heartbroken. But rather than let that defeat her, Okuni channels her anger into art, cross-dressing as a male and entering a dance with Okiku, trying to beat her up. What starts out as a public catfight turns into a popular play.

With Sanjuro casting her aside, Okiku next falls in love with a flute-playing samurai. But their time together is short. However, he leaves her with much of his clothing and with the inspiration to improve. But things start to go downhill--there are several competing theaters now, and Sankuro and Okiku betray the troop by selling the theater out from under them. The sisters go to work in a wine-shop, with only Okuni and a couple of others continuing in the art. But even when poor and not colorfully dressed, Okuni manages to inspire people with her dance.

In a typical "Nobody Loves, Everybody Dies" Japanese ending, the story finishes with Okuni returning home, dying of tuberculosis. But to the end, she dances, and when she dies, she is reunited with the loved ones from her past, and they all dance together.

Interesting story. Script was weak, but the acting was pretty good. Standouts were Sakai Masato as the brilliant, scheming Sankuro, who you really wanted to hate but couldn't because he had too much charisma; Harada Natsuki as the beautiful, back-stabbing Okiku; and Suzuki Kazuma as Densuke, another male actor in the troop who loves Okuni but settles for being a supportive friend when he realizes that she will never see him as a suitor.

I know little-to-nothing about kabuki or Japanese dance, so I can't judge the performances of that part, but the costumes were incredible! I may take some screenshots to show some of the stencil/dye work and colorful combinations used on these outfits--they were really remarkable! Another thing I liked about this drama was that it really was about common people--the great and mighty who are so often portrayed in such dramas have but a minor role in this one, and when they are shown, it is usually behind a screen. In our culture, we are used to our officials being fairly accessable (present administration nonwithstanding), but that wasn't the case in late 16th century Japan.

All in all, an uneven, but well-worth watching drama. There are some English-subbed versions floating around, but the subs were done by someone who didn't speak English very well and who tended to leave out some of the dialogue as well.

(X-posted from my LJ, except I had to recode the html for the board. I apologize for the length, but it was a six-hour movie!)