Why Akira Kurosawa's version of the Tokyo Olympics didn't happen? Part 2

Stolen "Heaven and Inferno"

Budget cuts are thought to be the biggest reason why Kurosawa withdrew from the Olympic documentary film, but there are also voices pointing to another reason. This was due to the existence of tabata politics. The theory is that Kurosawa had full trust in Tabata, and Tabata's resignation may have awakened Kurosawa's passion. Yukiaki Iwata, who was Tabata's right-hand man and the head of public affairs for the organizing committee, later revealed this:

``As Mr. Tabata was forced out of the post of secretary general due to pressure from the political world, Mr. Kurosawa also lost his passion and resigned as a martyr to Mr. Tabata.'' (Asahi Shimbun, September 22, 1984)

Immediately after his resignation, Tabata himself said something similar, saying, ``The most disappointing thing is that director Kurosawa is withdrawing from making documentary films today, the day I quit'' (Bungei Asahi, November 1963 issue). doing. Even in the 45th episode of the NHK Taiga drama `` Idaten, '' which featured Tabata as the main character, Kurosawa resigned due to Tabata's dismissal, and the theory was that Kurosawa would be reborn as Ichiren.

However, apart from budget problems and Tabata's resignation, Kurosawa was also beset by a series of great misfortunes during this period. My hypothesis is that this may not be unrelated to his resignation as director. This happened one after another as a disaster related to `` Heaven and Inferno .''

On February 20, 1963, just before the film was scheduled for release on March 1, 1963, the media suddenly reported the following. “Plagiarism? Similar scenes/Movie ``Heaven and Inferno'' and novels/TV/Toho and Kurosawa Productions protest'' (``Asahi Shimbun''), ``Is ``Dry Season'' plagiarized?/To the original authors including Akira Kurosawa As can be seen from the headlines of major newspapers such as ``To Protest'' (Yomi Shimbun) and ``Kurosawa Productions Protest Mystery Writer: 'My Idea Was Stolen''' (Mainichi Shimbun), he was accused of plagiarism. was not written by Kurosawa, but by the mystery writer Toru Miyoshi, the novel ``Dry Seasons'' (Kawade Shobo Shinsha). In the same movie, a lawmaker's wife is kidnapped, and the culprit's method of collecting the ransom and the way the victim gains sympathy and fame are very similar to the movie. In particular, the central idea of ​​``Heaven and Inferno'', which does not exist in the original story, is that the characters are instructed by telephone on the train to throw the ransom money out the window of a moving express train, but it is exactly the same in ``Dry Season''. It was used.

Coincidentally, Kon Ichikawa was the first to notice this problem. On February 5th, at a meeting of Japan United Artists, a new group formed by screenwriters and producers centered around Ichikawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Tadashi Imai, and others, one of the screenwriters of ``Heaven and Inferno'' When Ryuzo Kikushima and Ichikawa met, Kikushima told them about the contents of Kurosawa's new work. Ichikawa then said, ``I read that story in a novel just recently'' (Scenario, September 1963 issue), and it became clear that it was ``The Dry Season.''

This book was first published on December 20, 1962. 90 copies of the script for ``Heaven and Inferno'' were distributed to the filming staff on April 5th of the same year, and 650 copies were distributed to the media on April 30th. ) has already introduced the contents in a large article titled ``Akira Kurosawa, the world's master who is working on ``Heaven and Inferno'', vents his anger at ``temptation''''. Since filming has not yet begun at this stage, it is clear that he is writing based on a script, but the magazine article states, ``When it comes to kidnapping cases, the most difficult part is how to receive the money.'' (Omitted) Mystery writer ``Director Kurosawa brilliantly resolved this ultimate tearful moment for the movie by using a combination of an express train and a telephone call,'' but the film company's policy forbade spoilers about the specifics. It is not written.

So, did Miyoshi not have the opportunity to know the contents of ``Heaven and Inferno'' beforehand? It cannot be said that he did not have the opportunity to know the contents because he was working as a reporter for ``Weekly Yomiuri'' at the time. However, Miyoshi came out with a fierce rebuttal. The day after the article was published, he sued Kikushima, director of Kurosawa Productions, and Masumi Fujimoto, director of Toho, for defamation. In the first place, neither Toho nor Kurosawa Productions officially declared that it was plagiarism, but the media discovered it, covered it, and wrote about it while they were considering a letter of protest to Miyoshi. Miyoshi took issue with the statements made by Kikushima and Fujimoto in the interview, saying they seriously damaged his reputation, and dismissed the plagiarism as a complete false accusation.

This issue further arose in the TV drama "Shonen Tanteidan Inferno no Kamen," which aired on Fuji TV on February 14 of the same year, and there was a scene in which the culprit forced valuables to be thrown from the express train, leading to a three-way standoff. This led to the Scenario Writers Association taking action. The situation became chaotic, with many celebrities including screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto and mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto announcing their views, and it took two years to reach a settlement.

Amid this plagiarism controversy, Kurosawa has not released any official comments. When asked for a press conference, he declined, saying, ``I'm leaving everything to Mr. Fujimoto and Mr. Kikushima'' (Weekly Yomiuri), and asked those involved to ``not make things worse.'' "Both of them are unfortunate. They are in trouble," he was quoted as saying. Kurosawa has bitter memories of the plagiarism scandal. When producing `` No Regrets in My Youth '' (1946), the originally completed script was revised because it was similar in content to ``As Long as I Live'' (46), which was also produced by Toho at the same time. I was forced to. At that time, planning decisions required the consent of the labor union at the studio, and the union had more power, and Kurosawa's attitude caused displeasure, leading to trouble, but such experiences For Kurosawa, who was a man of his own, the conflict that stemmed from similarities must have been unfortunate for both sides.

In worse cases, bad stories overlap, and Kurosawa was tormented by another case of plagiarism related to ``Heaven and Inferno.'' Once again, ransom delivery using a train was imitated, but this time it became a real incident one after another. It could be said that the disaster was due to a trick that the four writers who wrote the scenario boasted about as ``the perfect crime'' (Mainichi Shimbun Evening Edition, July 12, 1962) before filming.

First, in the case of Yoshinobu's kidnapping and murder that occurred on March 31, 1963, the culprit who was later arrested said that he had watched the trailer for ``Heaven and Inferno'' and used it as a hint for the crime, but from the beginning of the incident, It was reported in the June 1963 issue of Koukou Jidai that a kidnapping incident that brought ``heaven and Inferno to earth'' was reported. Furthermore, on September 9 of the same year, a person calling himself Jiro Kusaka, who is also known for planting timed explosive devices in the subway, sent a threatening letter to Sayuri Yoshinaga. He boarded an express train bound for Aomori from Ueno Station on the specified date and time, and using a flashlight from outside the train, he signaled that he should drop a million yen when he arrived at the location. Although the incident ended in failure, it became a sensational headline: ``A bold challenge to the police force! Blackmailing Sayuri Yoshinaga with the techniques of ``Heaven and Inferno'''' (Weekly Yomiuri, September 22, 1963). Other works include ``Imitating ``Heaven and Inferno'' / Threatening juvenile arrested in major investigation'' (Mainichi Shimbun Evening Edition, October 17, 1963), ``14 threatening phone calls, man who imitated the movie ``Heaven and Inferno.'' "Arrested" (Mainichi Shimbun, March 29, 1964), all of these crimes involved stealing money by having people throw money from trains.

Kurosawa decided to officially step down as director of the Olympic film at a time when his work was being imitated and swayed, both in reality and fiction. It can be said that not only the budget issues and Tabata's dismissal, but also the uproar surrounding ``Heaven and Inferno'' exhausted Kurosawa.

As if to escape the hustle and bustle of ``Tokyo Olympics'' and ``Heaven and Inferno,'' Kurosawa tried to stabilize his mind by immersing himself in `` Red Beard ,'' an original work by Shugoro Yamamoto. Kurosawa later attempted to break into Hollywood with ``Runaway Locomotive'' and ``Tora Tora Tora!'' which were canceled one after another, and Kurosawa, who was cornered into a difficult situation, gave up everything and decided to release the fable `` What's Up'' based on Shugoro Yamamoto's original work. It matches the flow of filming ``Hmm ''. ``Tokyo Olympics'' was the starting point for Kurosawa's subsequent films, and if Kurosawa had found a way to survive here, his subsequent life as a film director might have been different.

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[References]

``Kinema Junpo'' ``Scenario'' ``Cinemagraphy'' ``Another Theory of Akira Kurosawa'' ``Akira Kurosawa Collection'' ``People Talking About Akira Kurosawa'' ``Shozen Imai's Work - A Life with a Screen'' ``Tasashi Imai's Movie Life'' ``Kurosawa Movies'' ``Current Document Ran'' ``Akira Kurosawa: The World of ``Ran'''' ``The Legend of Kurosawa: His Dreams and Will'' ``Akira Kurosawa and Red Beard'' Document: The Culmination of Human Love'' ``Kinema Junpo Bessatsu Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune Two Japanese ”, “World Film Writers 3 Akira Kurosawa”, “Biography of Akira Kurosawa”, “Toad Oil: Something Like an Autobiography”, “Complete Edition of Kon Ichikawa's Films”, “Tokyojin”, “Bessatsu Kinema Junpo Tokyo Olympics”, “In Search of Akira Kurosawa” ``The Giant and the Boy: Akira Kurosawa's Women'' ``My Travels in the Art World'' ``Complete Works of Akira Kurosawa'' ``Large System of Akira Kurosawa'' ``My Traveling Diary'' ``Ningen Address Roku'' ``Review of Tabata Politics: A Lifetime in the Olympics ``The man who dedicated the 1940 Tokyo Olympics from bid to return'' ``Asahi Shimbun'', ``Yomiuri Shimbun'', ``Mainichi Shimbun'', ``Tokyo Shimbun'', ``Hochi Shimbun'', ``Miyako Shimbun'', ``Sankei Shimbun'', ``Weekly Shincho'' ``Weekly Gendai'' ``Weekly Yomiuri'' ``Bungei Shunju'' ``Bungei Asahi'' ``Ushio'' ``Bungei'' ``Chuokoron'' ``Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' ``High School Days'' ``Tokyo Olympic Tokyo Organizing Committee Newsletter'' ``Tokyo Metropolitan Government “Olympic Times” “Distribution White Paper for the Full-length Documentary Film “Tokyo Olympics””

Text: Guinea Pig Yoshida

Born in 1978. Movie critic. Another name is Ichiro Yoshida. He has written for ``Eiga Hiho'', ``Kinema Junpo'', ``Eiga Geijutsu'', ``Scenario'', etc. His books include ``Introduction to film criticism! ” (Yosensha), co-authored with “Film director Takeshi Kitano. ” (Film Art Company) and others

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