Review: Epiphany - Hoshigumi 1999
Jun. 10th, 2009 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masahiSummary: Loosely based on the comedy of errors that is Twelfth Night, Epiphany is a piece of meta-comedy-drama, which looks back at the roots of co-ed theatre in Japan, from the heart of the kabuki tradition.
Set in Meiji-era Japan, the story follows Raikoya Otoka who, when her brother runs away from his familial responsibilities and the opportunity to join the Enoza kabuki theatre, decides to take his place until his return.
With all the confusion, Otaka finds herself in a muddle of a love-triangle with Iriya, master of the Enouza, who is in love with his former tutor's daughter, Mari, who in turn falls in love with the person everyone assumes is Takagoro.
There is also the subplot of Mari's father's love affair in Europe, the influence that still has on him and the way it changes Japanese theatre. There is a more detailed summary here.
I will freely admit that I haven't seen many Nihonmono (Historical Japan-based stories), but this one really makes me want to see more. I know it's not a classical piece of Japanese traditional story-telling, but Ayaki Nao was utterly mesmerising in the sections of dancing, and I would happily watch her do that kind of dance for hours.
She was playing the double-role of Otaka and Takagoro, and what really impressed me was how different she managed to make the characters. Since she normally plays boys, it shouldn't have been a surprise, but she wasn't just playing Otaka as a boy - she was a girl playing a boy, with little slips and faux pas, when she forgot and would sit or stand or move like a girl. And then, she was Takagoro, with a swagger in his step and cockiness of a young man.
And on top of that, she managed to rip my heart out and stamp on it several times over with the way they played out her relationship with Iriya. I had never really understood how the understated style of Japanese dance could express such emotion until the final scene of act 1, when she showed her devastation at her secret solitude in every move of her body. The tears streaking her cheeks as the lights went down were salt in the wound.
I adored the relationships she played against as well:
Iriya/Otaka - this one was simply lovely. Tsukasa Yuuki was such a sweetly oblivious and genuine good-hearted Iriya, who cheerfully classes Otaka as one of the boys, but still watches out for her.
Otaka is the lovelorn girl in love with her boss, who hasn't got a clue, until they're talking about the nature of love, and when he takes her hand and there's just that moment where you see him go "Ooooo..." before freaking out and flailing and going "SO THE WEATHER IT IS NICE AND I HAVE THINGS TO DO!!!"
I love that the hand-touch became the symbol of their relationship, especially when Takagoro showed up and Iriya grabbed his hand in emphasis, flailed, then went "wait.. no spark. Oh! Good! I'm not cracking up!".
And in the final scene, there's no dramatic announcement of "I love you!", just him acknowledging that he's held the hand of the person he was meant to. They don't go further, knowing it'll mean the end of her career and the fact he doesn't push her to choose him over the theatre shows how much he does care.
Otaka/Mari - I loved watching her in scenes with other female characters. Saeko put in to many little touches of genuine, girlish behaviour, which she had to keep on forcing aside. Even the way she sat, hands folded in her lap, and subtle things like that. Especially with Mari, when she started acting more like a female friend to her, than a young man, as she should have been. And she was so gentle and kind to her, in spite of everything.
Otaka/Kabuki actors - The two kabuki actors played by Nishiki Ai & Oohiro Ayumu are worth watching this show for alone. The gender confusion that ensues when a girl-playing-a-boy is being talked to by a man-who-plays-woman who has collected too many feminine traits to forget to keep them just for the stage, while all of them are played by women is priceless.
With Otaka being one of the boys, the good-natured teasing between them is lovely, with poor Otaka regularly going 0.0 when they keep trying to given her love-life a nudge. They're hopeless attempts at protecting her are also very sweet.
And as a counterpoint:
Takagoro/Shingoro - this was the blokeist relationship that ever bloked, right down to the spitting and manly lack of emotional goodbyes or greetings when they're reunited. And yet, they still manage to convey the depth of friendship between Shin-san and Takagoro. Shingoro's expression when Otaka says "and you are...?" was little short of heart-broken, and oh, I loved it.
Rest-of-cast-wise:
Tsukasa Yuuki - she played Iriya beautifully. He was a decent guy, but a bit hopeless when it came to romance. I loved the friendship they laid out between him and Otaka's Takagoro, where it's clear he's very fond of her. Plus, the pleasure he takes when he sees Otaka as herself is lovely.
Hisato Rie - Mari was actually a surprisingly likeable, if sadly hopeless young girl. I loved how impetuous and determined Rie played her, which I suspect is a much more modern attitude than would have been possible even a few years before.
Matobu Sei - Despite only being on-stage a handful of times as Shingoro, Yuu was chomping on the sets all over the place. Shingoro could have been a bum and nothing more, but the Takagoro/Shingoro relationship - as mentioned before - gave him a layer of depth.
Shin-san had layer upon layer of stuff going on, and interestingly, the most emotion he showed was when he thought Takagoro had decided to ditch him. Even when he's had his butt kicked and is about to lose a hand, he's the most hardcore person on the stage.
His relationship with his fellow ex-pick-pocket did incline towards the classic for a moment, until he went Bloke on her. Never say the soppy stuff, that's the rule, and he didn't. But yeah, he admitted, she was all right. Best thing in a crappy world.
Nishiki Ai & Oohiro Ayumu - this double-act of Kabuki characters was perfection. I loved the fact that when they were in both traditional costume, and western dress, they had their kabuki mannerisms that they couldn't shake. Especially Ayumu, I believe, who played the onnagata. She was such a bundle of contraditions - a woman playing a man who plays woman so much he moves and acts like one with a few manly traits. Their interaction was fantastic and giggle-worthy :)
Miya Erika - Yae was actually a surprise and the strongest woman in the show, who ended up grabbing a member of the Ministry of Home Affairs by the collar and informing him that he would be marrying her so she could keep him on the right track :D Throughout, she showed herself to be the brains of the outfit and not afraid to speak her mind when she felt like it.
Asazumi Kei - the counterpoint to Yae, Fukunaga was hilarious, a complete tomcat poser, with the attitude that he knew what he was doing, but in reality, being nudged all the way by other people.
What actually pleased me the most about this show was the fact that women were the ones to run the show. There was not a single cowed, soppy girl to be seen. Even Mari, despite her woe-and-angst, was still fierce enough to fight for what she wanted.
Otaka, Yae and even Shige (Mari's mother) were ready and willing to do what needed to be done to give their menfolk a sharp kick up the backside. The women are - finally - given credit for being as strong as they are, despite eternally being put in the shadows by the men.
On the whole, I adored this show. I loved the mix of Meiji-style tradition melding with Western style. I loved the twist on the Twelfth Night tale. I loved watching Saeko dancing, traditional-style. I suspect this show has just shouldered its way easily into my top 5.
Set in Meiji-era Japan, the story follows Raikoya Otoka who, when her brother runs away from his familial responsibilities and the opportunity to join the Enoza kabuki theatre, decides to take his place until his return.
With all the confusion, Otaka finds herself in a muddle of a love-triangle with Iriya, master of the Enouza, who is in love with his former tutor's daughter, Mari, who in turn falls in love with the person everyone assumes is Takagoro.
There is also the subplot of Mari's father's love affair in Europe, the influence that still has on him and the way it changes Japanese theatre. There is a more detailed summary here.
I will freely admit that I haven't seen many Nihonmono (Historical Japan-based stories), but this one really makes me want to see more. I know it's not a classical piece of Japanese traditional story-telling, but Ayaki Nao was utterly mesmerising in the sections of dancing, and I would happily watch her do that kind of dance for hours.
She was playing the double-role of Otaka and Takagoro, and what really impressed me was how different she managed to make the characters. Since she normally plays boys, it shouldn't have been a surprise, but she wasn't just playing Otaka as a boy - she was a girl playing a boy, with little slips and faux pas, when she forgot and would sit or stand or move like a girl. And then, she was Takagoro, with a swagger in his step and cockiness of a young man.
And on top of that, she managed to rip my heart out and stamp on it several times over with the way they played out her relationship with Iriya. I had never really understood how the understated style of Japanese dance could express such emotion until the final scene of act 1, when she showed her devastation at her secret solitude in every move of her body. The tears streaking her cheeks as the lights went down were salt in the wound.
I adored the relationships she played against as well:
Iriya/Otaka - this one was simply lovely. Tsukasa Yuuki was such a sweetly oblivious and genuine good-hearted Iriya, who cheerfully classes Otaka as one of the boys, but still watches out for her.
Otaka is the lovelorn girl in love with her boss, who hasn't got a clue, until they're talking about the nature of love, and when he takes her hand and there's just that moment where you see him go "Ooooo..." before freaking out and flailing and going "SO THE WEATHER IT IS NICE AND I HAVE THINGS TO DO!!!"
I love that the hand-touch became the symbol of their relationship, especially when Takagoro showed up and Iriya grabbed his hand in emphasis, flailed, then went "wait.. no spark. Oh! Good! I'm not cracking up!".
And in the final scene, there's no dramatic announcement of "I love you!", just him acknowledging that he's held the hand of the person he was meant to. They don't go further, knowing it'll mean the end of her career and the fact he doesn't push her to choose him over the theatre shows how much he does care.
Otaka/Mari - I loved watching her in scenes with other female characters. Saeko put in to many little touches of genuine, girlish behaviour, which she had to keep on forcing aside. Even the way she sat, hands folded in her lap, and subtle things like that. Especially with Mari, when she started acting more like a female friend to her, than a young man, as she should have been. And she was so gentle and kind to her, in spite of everything.
Otaka/Kabuki actors - The two kabuki actors played by Nishiki Ai & Oohiro Ayumu are worth watching this show for alone. The gender confusion that ensues when a girl-playing-a-boy is being talked to by a man-who-plays-woman who has collected too many feminine traits to forget to keep them just for the stage, while all of them are played by women is priceless.
With Otaka being one of the boys, the good-natured teasing between them is lovely, with poor Otaka regularly going 0.0 when they keep trying to given her love-life a nudge. They're hopeless attempts at protecting her are also very sweet.
And as a counterpoint:
Takagoro/Shingoro - this was the blokeist relationship that ever bloked, right down to the spitting and manly lack of emotional goodbyes or greetings when they're reunited. And yet, they still manage to convey the depth of friendship between Shin-san and Takagoro. Shingoro's expression when Otaka says "and you are...?" was little short of heart-broken, and oh, I loved it.
Rest-of-cast-wise:
Tsukasa Yuuki - she played Iriya beautifully. He was a decent guy, but a bit hopeless when it came to romance. I loved the friendship they laid out between him and Otaka's Takagoro, where it's clear he's very fond of her. Plus, the pleasure he takes when he sees Otaka as herself is lovely.
Hisato Rie - Mari was actually a surprisingly likeable, if sadly hopeless young girl. I loved how impetuous and determined Rie played her, which I suspect is a much more modern attitude than would have been possible even a few years before.
Matobu Sei - Despite only being on-stage a handful of times as Shingoro, Yuu was chomping on the sets all over the place. Shingoro could have been a bum and nothing more, but the Takagoro/Shingoro relationship - as mentioned before - gave him a layer of depth.
Shin-san had layer upon layer of stuff going on, and interestingly, the most emotion he showed was when he thought Takagoro had decided to ditch him. Even when he's had his butt kicked and is about to lose a hand, he's the most hardcore person on the stage.
His relationship with his fellow ex-pick-pocket did incline towards the classic for a moment, until he went Bloke on her. Never say the soppy stuff, that's the rule, and he didn't. But yeah, he admitted, she was all right. Best thing in a crappy world.
Nishiki Ai & Oohiro Ayumu - this double-act of Kabuki characters was perfection. I loved the fact that when they were in both traditional costume, and western dress, they had their kabuki mannerisms that they couldn't shake. Especially Ayumu, I believe, who played the onnagata. She was such a bundle of contraditions - a woman playing a man who plays woman so much he moves and acts like one with a few manly traits. Their interaction was fantastic and giggle-worthy :)
Miya Erika - Yae was actually a surprise and the strongest woman in the show, who ended up grabbing a member of the Ministry of Home Affairs by the collar and informing him that he would be marrying her so she could keep him on the right track :D Throughout, she showed herself to be the brains of the outfit and not afraid to speak her mind when she felt like it.
Asazumi Kei - the counterpoint to Yae, Fukunaga was hilarious, a complete tomcat poser, with the attitude that he knew what he was doing, but in reality, being nudged all the way by other people.
What actually pleased me the most about this show was the fact that women were the ones to run the show. There was not a single cowed, soppy girl to be seen. Even Mari, despite her woe-and-angst, was still fierce enough to fight for what she wanted.
Otaka, Yae and even Shige (Mari's mother) were ready and willing to do what needed to be done to give their menfolk a sharp kick up the backside. The women are - finally - given credit for being as strong as they are, despite eternally being put in the shadows by the men.
On the whole, I adored this show. I loved the mix of Meiji-style tradition melding with Western style. I loved the twist on the Twelfth Night tale. I loved watching Saeko dancing, traditional-style. I suspect this show has just shouldered its way easily into my top 5.
