“The Written Face” is all about the stage = for the beauty of life

"The Written Face" synopsis

``The Written Face'' was born from the close friendship between Daniel Schmidt, who was known as an opera director with a deep knowledge of the arts, and Japanese cultural figures and filmmakers. Schmidt, who specializes in fantastical works that mix fiction and reality, uses the unique existence of the female role to explore the boundaries between gender, life and death, and fiction and documentary, depicting the fictional image of traditional Japanese women. Make it stand out. Starring Tamasaburo Bando, the best kabuki actor of our time and a well-known female performer, actress Haruko Sugimura, Japanese dancer Han Takehara, butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, and Japan's oldest geisha Tsuta Kiyoshi Komatsu. Morning. The momentary brilliance shown by legends disappearing into the twilight of Japan at the end of the century is reflected.

Index

• On Body and Soul
• be disturbed
• When the automaton stops
• The soul of luck, the parabola

On Body and Soul

"Look at it. Next time, take the heart inside."

The credits of "Tamasaburo Bando" overlap with a person walking on the path in front of Yachiyo-za. The credit of the rare star ``Tamazaburo Bando'' is only allowed to be given at this timing. The opening credits of ``The Written Face'' (1995) are so perfect that you can't believe it.

Tamasaburo Bando, wearing a suit, peeks out from the wings of the stage as he performs ``Oochi'' on the Yachiyo-za stage. Tamasaburo Bando silently walks along the side of the stage, resembling a cat walking quietly in the attic. A cat with dignity. A thinking cat. Or a ghost that peeks into your appearance in this world. In this opening scene, Tamasaburo Bando's body and mind are separated. It expresses an out-of-body state, so to speak. The body is here. The spirit continues to dance on the stage. This out-of-body expression resonates with Tamasaburo Bando's own words about playing a female role and, more broadly, his philosophy on the profession of acting.

“The Written Face” (C)1995 T&C FILM AG / EURO SPACE

``By continuing to play the role of someone else, oneself disappears, and a persona that does not exist emerges.To put it in an extreme way, only the function of the brain that manipulates oneself, known as reason, is left behind, and everything else in this world is left behind. I think it can be said that he is a person whose soul has transferred to him even though he is not a real person.'' (Tamazaburo Bando) *1

The same could be said of Daniel Schmidt, a Swiss man who shot this film in a foreign country. According to Kansie Fujima, Tamasaburo Bando's mother and teacher, ``Look at it.Next, take the heart inside'' is a teaching phrase for dance, and Daniel Schmidt had a similar spirit. He may have taken on the challenge of documenting Japan's traditional performing arts. Rather than researching Japan in depth through on-site surveys, the work involved learning about the hearts of the people who live there through their gestures. According to the memoirs of Shinji Aoyama, who was an assistant director on this film, while filming the legendary dancer Kazuo Ohno on camera, Daniel Schmidt started dancing in the same way behind the camera.

This work is an ideal collaboration between Daniel Schmidt and Tamasaburo Bando that makes you dream of a paradise. Indulge in beauty. When I touch the endlessly beautiful screens of this work, I feel like I'm dreaming of heaven, wondering if I'll be taken to heaven. A collaboration between two people who pursue beauty. Tamasaburo Bando, who was originally a fan of Daniel Schmidt's films, said, ``I can work with people of any genre as long as they have an acting soul.'' This is what the filmmakers are telling us. *2

be disturbed