The Peerless Patriot (國士無双[デジタル修復版), Enoken’s Kinta the Pickpocket (エノケンのちゃっきり金太) & Singing Lovebirds (鴛鴦歌合戰)

The Peerless Patriot (國士無双[デジタル修復版), Enoken's Kinta the Pickpocket (エノケンのちゃっきり金太) & Singing Lovebirds (鴛鴦歌合戰)

Friday, February 3, 2012 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Auditorium, Whitney Humanities Center See map
53 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 6510

國士無双[デジタル修復版][英語字幕付] 1932 Itami Mansaku
The Peerless Patriot


Along with his 1936 film Akanishi Kakita, The Peerless Patriot is known as one of director Itami Mansaku’s representative works and a masterpiece of “nonsense jidaigeki.” Fragments from the original feature-length film have been edited together to create this digest version, following a country bumpkin as he impersonates the ruler. With its sharp sense of satire, the film parodies the conventions of the period film genre and ushers in a new approach to the period film in Japan.

エノケンのちゃっきり金太[英語字幕付][総集篇] 1937 Yamamoto Kajiro
Enoken’s Kinta the Pickpocket


A comedic tale told in four parts, this film follows the antics of the pickpocket Kinta as he is pursued by a low ranking deputy named Kurakichi. The two get into all manner of peccadilloes and encounter a range of peculiar characters as their game of cat and mouse moves across the countryside in the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The title role is played by Enomoto Kenichi (known by his performance name Enoken), a star of screen and stage. Kinta the Pickpocket showcases his indefatigable energy and talent for physical comedy.

鴛鴦歌合戰[英語字幕付] 1939 Makino Masahiro
Singing Lovebirds


A rare generic hybrid of period film, romantic comedy, and full-fledged musical! A tour de force of both chanbara choreography and operetta style lyricism. Directed by Makino Masahiro, one of the most important directors in the history of Japanese cinema, who is still little-known outside of Japan.

The Sword and the Screen: The Japanese Period Film 1915-1960
Rare Samurai Films From the Collection of the National Film Center, Tokyo
A series of rare Japanese samurai films from the collection of the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, which highlights the abundant variety of Japan’s most famous genre. There are social critiques, melodramas, comedies, ghost films and even musicals, directed by some of the masters of Japanese cinema who, in part because they worked in popular cinema, have rarely been presented abroad. The series is the first time Japan’s national film archive has cooperated with a non-Japanese university. All films are in 35mm with English subtitles.

For More Information

Sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies and the National Film Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
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Japan