I am amused to see "The Fall Guy" on our recommended viewing list. It was one of the Japanese movies that China dubbed in the 80s. The Chinese audience certainly enjoyed it but some were asking: so what's educational about it? (you know how they were) I guess I have a similar question here: why is this movie here on our list?
I should definitely watch it in the original and maybe dubbed version later. I am happy that this group is so directly helping my research.
I chose it almost on a whim, because I think it connects to "Millennium Actress" for the very glib reason that it is also about the Japanese film industry. It was an exceedingly popular release in Japan in 1982 and is a very strange mix of physical comedy and over-the-top melodrama. The director is Kinji Fukasaku, who made a lot of excellent genre pictures that often contained generically subversive elements, and I think "The Fall Guy" is a reflection on his experiences in the industry (particularly stars and genres). The action revolves around a jidaigeki production (the legendary "Shinsengumi" story), but we are also given glimpses into the kinds of films that were popular in the '70s/'80s and that Fukasaku had built his career making (mostly gangster/samurai dramas). Bizarrely, it is sometimes difficult to tell when the movie takes place. Some of the onscreen filming methods they use for the Shinsengumi adaptation make it seem like they are working on a silent film and the movie's Japanese title ("Kamata koshin-kyoku") actually refers to a famous song associated with the Shochiku Kamata studios that debuted in 1929.
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll write about it in this space once you've seen it. It is a strange and interesting film with a lot in it: I found it intolerable for the first 20 minutes but was really invested for the dramatic final moments.
I have not found a way to post, so I will borrow the space here. I will come back to read your posts later, but here is what I came across, in case you want to know too:
ReplyDeleteThe bicycling girl image. John brought this up in the discussion. This image was initially a commonly used Western image symbolizing freedom for new women in late 19th (and early 20th?) century, when plays like Nora were popular.