Kanto Wanderer
Encyclopedia
is a 1963
Japanese
yakuza film
directed by Seijun Suzuki
and starring Akira Kobayashi
, Chieko Matsubara, Daizaburo Hirata and Hiroko Itō. It was a programme picture
produced by the Nikkatsu Company
to fill out the second half of a double bill
with Shohei Imamura
's The Insect Woman
. The film was based on a novel by Taiko Hirabayashi and had been previously adapted to the screen as Song from the Underworld (1956) by Suzuki's mentor, Hiroshi Noguchi. The story involves Katsuta, a yakuza
member who falls in love and is torn between giri (duty) and ninjo
(humanity). The Kanto
of the title refers to a large plain on which Tokyo
is located.
, Katsuta, of the Izu Clan. They meet another yakuza, "Diamond" Fuyu, of the rival Yoshida clan. As he gets a tattoo
, two of the girls become squeamish and run off but Hanako, the best friend of the daughter of Sota Izu, boss of the Izu clan, stays to watch. She is intrigued with the yakuza world. Fuyu takes her to an illegal gambling den where Tetsu, a dealer, takes a liking to her. The police raid the den and Hanako is arrested but let off with a warning. Later, Tetsu runs into Hanako on the street and convinces her to help him pull a variant of the badger game
, a scam in which, with the promise of sex, she is to lure a man to a hotel room where Tetsu will extort money from him by threat of blackmail
. The scam fails when the man chases Testu off and Hanako is left stranded with the man.
Katsuta chances upon Tatsuko, a con artist
who he had encountered four years earlier when he had exposed her and her partner in a scam. Her partner had slashed him across the face in their escape and he bore the resulting scar in fond remembrance of her. Word that Hanako has gone missing reaches Katsuta and he inquires as to her whereabouts from Tetsu who feigns ignorance. They search for her without success and end up at a hotel. Katsuta suspects a gambling game there is fixed, but Tetsu insists on partaking and Katsuta follows. He again meets Tatsuko whose husband, Hachi Okaru, is winning the game by looking at the cards in the reflection of a cigarette case. When the others leave Okaru challenges Katsuta to a game and wins again by cheating.
Diamond, who was in hiding with Tatsuko, his sister, emerges and demands to know what happened to Hanako, but Katsuta cannot tell him. Katsuta and Tatsuko fight their feelings for one another. Tensions rise between the Izu and Yoshida clan and Sato Izu begins to suspect Katsuta of disloyalty. Katsuta murders a group of rude gambler parlor attendees. Realizing he has nothing left to lose, he slays his way to a rival boss, demanding he give his fealty to Izu. When Izu is killed by Fuyu making Katsuta's earlier actions moot, Katsuta states his actions were nonetheless honorable.
assigned Kanto Wanderer to contract director Seijun Suzuki
. It was his first ninkyo eiga
, or chivalry film. It was also a programme picture
, a quickly-made, low budget film, designed to be screened after Shohei Imamura
's The Insect Woman
. Kanto Wanderer was based on a serial
written by Taiko Hirabayashi published in the Asahi Shinbun. Hiroshi Noguchi, Suzuki's mentor, had previously adapted the story as Song from the Underworld (1956). Suzuki was apprehensive about remaking a film by Noguchi but his producer Kenzō Asada assured him that it was better a former assistant directed it.
Suzuki accepted the assignment on September 24, 1963, and began location scouting
the same day. The studio also assigned matinée idol
Akira Kobayashi
and Chieko Matsubara to the lead roles. Suzuki and his collaborators had more sway with the remaining parts. They suggested many actress for the role of Tatsuko Iwata, such as Yoshie Mizutani and Yukiji Asaoka
, but all were turned down. Suzuki argued frequently with the studio on the subject. The studio suggested Minako Osanai, a famous television star, but Suzuki warned them against it as he felt her small face would not carry over to the large screen format. Two days before filming was scheduled to begin, art director Takeo Kimura
suggested Hiroko Itō to Suzuki and she was selected.
Shooting began on October 5, on location in Shinagawa
. Kobayashi appeared on set wearing what Suzuki later described as Brezhnevian
artificial eyebrows. A dismayed Asada told Suzuki, "Tell Akira to cut that out." Suzuki suggested they leave them so as not to immediately antagonize Kobayashi and the eyebrows remained. Since the film was to be shown immediately following the main feature, and Suzuki felt that all Nikkatsu films followed the same formula (the lead falls in love, kills the bad guy and gets the girl), he familiarized himself with The Insect Woman's actors, director and his approach and then approached similar scenes from a different angle in Kanto Wanderer. Filming was completed on November 10. The music was completed on the 12th and the dubbing
was done over the 13th and 14th.
1963 in film
The year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
Japanese
Cinema of Japan
The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...
yakuza film
Yakuza film
is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of yakuza, also referred to as the Japanese Mafia.-Ninkyo eiga:...
directed by Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...
and starring Akira Kobayashi
Akira Kobayashi
is a Japanese actor. His nickname is .- Biography :He successfully became an actor in the Nikkatsu Corporation. He attended Meiji University but left before graduating. Kobayashi made his debut in 1959 in the film Nangoku Tosa o Ato ni Shite . He also starred in the TV series "Wataridori" and...
, Chieko Matsubara, Daizaburo Hirata and Hiroko Itō. It was a programme picture
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
produced by the Nikkatsu Company
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...
to fill out the second half of a double bill
Double feature
The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...
with Shohei Imamura
Shohei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. Imamura was the first Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards.His eldest son Daisuke Tengan is also a script writer and film director, and worked on the screenplays to Imamura's filmsThe Eel , Dr...
's The Insect Woman
The Insect Woman
is a 1963 film directed by Japanese director Shōhei Imamura. It was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival where Sachiko Hidari won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award.-Plot:...
. The film was based on a novel by Taiko Hirabayashi and had been previously adapted to the screen as Song from the Underworld (1956) by Suzuki's mentor, Hiroshi Noguchi. The story involves Katsuta, a yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
member who falls in love and is torn between giri (duty) and ninjo
NinJo
NinJo is a meteorological software system. It is a community project of the German, Canadian, Danish and Swiss national meteorological services and the German military. It consists of modules for monitoring weather events, editing point forecasts and viewing meteorological data. An additional batch...
(humanity). The Kanto
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
of the title refers to a large plain on which Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
is located.
Plot
Three schoolgirls are infatuated with a yakuzaYakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
, Katsuta, of the Izu Clan. They meet another yakuza, "Diamond" Fuyu, of the rival Yoshida clan. As he gets a tattoo
Irezumi
Irezumi is a Japanese word that refers to the insertion of ink under the skin to leave a permanent, usually decorative mark; a form of tattooing....
, two of the girls become squeamish and run off but Hanako, the best friend of the daughter of Sota Izu, boss of the Izu clan, stays to watch. She is intrigued with the yakuza world. Fuyu takes her to an illegal gambling den where Tetsu, a dealer, takes a liking to her. The police raid the den and Hanako is arrested but let off with a warning. Later, Tetsu runs into Hanako on the street and convinces her to help him pull a variant of the badger game
Badger game
The badger game is an extortion scheme, often perpetrated on married men, in which the victim or "mark" is tricked into a compromising position to make him vulnerable to blackmail....
, a scam in which, with the promise of sex, she is to lure a man to a hotel room where Tetsu will extort money from him by threat of blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
. The scam fails when the man chases Testu off and Hanako is left stranded with the man.
Katsuta chances upon Tatsuko, a con artist
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
who he had encountered four years earlier when he had exposed her and her partner in a scam. Her partner had slashed him across the face in their escape and he bore the resulting scar in fond remembrance of her. Word that Hanako has gone missing reaches Katsuta and he inquires as to her whereabouts from Tetsu who feigns ignorance. They search for her without success and end up at a hotel. Katsuta suspects a gambling game there is fixed, but Tetsu insists on partaking and Katsuta follows. He again meets Tatsuko whose husband, Hachi Okaru, is winning the game by looking at the cards in the reflection of a cigarette case. When the others leave Okaru challenges Katsuta to a game and wins again by cheating.
Diamond, who was in hiding with Tatsuko, his sister, emerges and demands to know what happened to Hanako, but Katsuta cannot tell him. Katsuta and Tatsuko fight their feelings for one another. Tensions rise between the Izu and Yoshida clan and Sato Izu begins to suspect Katsuta of disloyalty. Katsuta murders a group of rude gambler parlor attendees. Realizing he has nothing left to lose, he slays his way to a rival boss, demanding he give his fealty to Izu. When Izu is killed by Fuyu making Katsuta's earlier actions moot, Katsuta states his actions were nonetheless honorable.
Cast
- Akira KobayashiAkira Kobayashiis a Japanese actor. His nickname is .- Biography :He successfully became an actor in the Nikkatsu Corporation. He attended Meiji University but left before graduating. Kobayashi made his debut in 1959 in the film Nangoku Tosa o Ato ni Shite . He also starred in the TV series "Wataridori" and...
as Mitsuo Katsuta - Chieko Matsubara as Tokiko Izu
- Daizaburo Hirata as "Diamond" Fuyu
- Hiroko Itō as Tatsuko Iwata
- Sanae Nakahara as Hanako Yamada
- Chikako Shin as Matsue Ichikawa
- Taiji Tonoyama as Sota Izu
- Toru Abe as Dairyu Yoshida
- Keisuke Noro as Tetsu Bikkuri
- Yunosuke Ito as Hachi Okaru
Production
The Nikkatsu CompanyNikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...
assigned Kanto Wanderer to contract director Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...
. It was his first ninkyo eiga
Yakuza film
is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of yakuza, also referred to as the Japanese Mafia.-Ninkyo eiga:...
, or chivalry film. It was also a programme picture
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
, a quickly-made, low budget film, designed to be screened after Shohei Imamura
Shohei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. Imamura was the first Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards.His eldest son Daisuke Tengan is also a script writer and film director, and worked on the screenplays to Imamura's filmsThe Eel , Dr...
's The Insect Woman
The Insect Woman
is a 1963 film directed by Japanese director Shōhei Imamura. It was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival where Sachiko Hidari won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award.-Plot:...
. Kanto Wanderer was based on a serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
written by Taiko Hirabayashi published in the Asahi Shinbun. Hiroshi Noguchi, Suzuki's mentor, had previously adapted the story as Song from the Underworld (1956). Suzuki was apprehensive about remaking a film by Noguchi but his producer Kenzō Asada assured him that it was better a former assistant directed it.
Suzuki accepted the assignment on September 24, 1963, and began location scouting
Location scouting
Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot outside of the studio, the search for a...
the same day. The studio also assigned matinée idol
Matinee idol
Matinée idol is a term used mainly to describe film or theatre stars who are adored to the point of adulation by their fans.The term almost exclusively refers to male actors. Invariably the adulation was fixated on the actor's looks rather than performance...
Akira Kobayashi
Akira Kobayashi
is a Japanese actor. His nickname is .- Biography :He successfully became an actor in the Nikkatsu Corporation. He attended Meiji University but left before graduating. Kobayashi made his debut in 1959 in the film Nangoku Tosa o Ato ni Shite . He also starred in the TV series "Wataridori" and...
and Chieko Matsubara to the lead roles. Suzuki and his collaborators had more sway with the remaining parts. They suggested many actress for the role of Tatsuko Iwata, such as Yoshie Mizutani and Yukiji Asaoka
Yukiji Asaoka
is a Japanese singer and an actress from Chūō, Tokyo. She is the daughter of the famous Japanese painter of shin hanga style prints, Shinsui Itō, and her second and present husband is actor Masahiko Tsugawa.Asaoka was in the Takarazuka Revue from 1952 to 1955...
, but all were turned down. Suzuki argued frequently with the studio on the subject. The studio suggested Minako Osanai, a famous television star, but Suzuki warned them against it as he felt her small face would not carry over to the large screen format. Two days before filming was scheduled to begin, art director Takeo Kimura
Takeo Kimura
was a Japanese art director, writer and film director. Beginning his career in 1945 he art-directed well over 200 films. He was one of Japan's best known art directors, most famously for his collaborations with cult director Seijun Suzuki through the 1960s at the Nikkatsu Company, exemplified by...
suggested Hiroko Itō to Suzuki and she was selected.
Shooting began on October 5, on location in Shinagawa
Shinagawa, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. In English, it is called Shinagawa City. The ward is home to nine embassies.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population of 344,461 and a density of 15,740 persons per km². The total area is 22.72 km²....
. Kobayashi appeared on set wearing what Suzuki later described as Brezhnevian
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
artificial eyebrows. A dismayed Asada told Suzuki, "Tell Akira to cut that out." Suzuki suggested they leave them so as not to immediately antagonize Kobayashi and the eyebrows remained. Since the film was to be shown immediately following the main feature, and Suzuki felt that all Nikkatsu films followed the same formula (the lead falls in love, kills the bad guy and gets the girl), he familiarized himself with The Insect Woman's actors, director and his approach and then approached similar scenes from a different angle in Kanto Wanderer. Filming was completed on November 10. The music was completed on the 12th and the dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
was done over the 13th and 14th.
External links
- Kanto Wanderer at the Japanese Movie DatabaseJapanese Movie DatabaseThe , commonly referred to as JMDB, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database, but lists only those films originally released in Japan. The site was started in 1997, and contains movies from Meiji...