I love Mikio Naruse, but I wasn't wild about this particular film of his. I'm not sure why. It gets plenty of love from other reviewers, while Naruse himself called it one of his personal favourites. Maybe drama school made me identify with stories like this and take them too seriously? (Occasionally, I also get something similar with screen portrayals of teachers.)

It's about a travelling kabuki troupe who've stopped in a village to put on a show. Our heroes are Kamatari Fujiwara and Kan Yanagiya, who play a pantomime horse but regard themselves as Serious Thespians. They're silly, pompous and not very clever. They're always working on their art, e.g. not relaxing on a hot day because they're going off to study real horses. The pantomime horse's head gets damaged and our heroes get precious about the proposed replacement, etc. There's also a grumpy drunken local who wants the troupe to let him appear in the play.

I didn't like them. They're not bad people, but the troupe has a job to do and they're not helping. Other viewers have found this funny... but not me, sorry. Their presence in the troupe just says "amateur hour" and you'd feel uncomfortable acting on the same stage as them. Trying to impress a girl with "I play the back end!" was amusing, though.

This was during World War Two, but you couldn't get further away from wartime propaganda. The film's about yokels and idiots and is basically poking fun at everything. It was a geidomono or "traditional arts" project, which filmmakers were allowed to do instead of 'national policy' films... but the authorities interfered anyway. This film was severely cut and I'd love to see what Naruse had been doing to upset the censors.

This film is deadpan and understated. Viewers today might not guess necessarily that it's a comedy, despite our ridiculous horse-heroes. It's studying the pathetic side of show business, with big but sensitive egos on a tour of village halls. There are lies and compromises even in this two-bit world. People use famous names they haven't earned. They get money from sponsors. The film's aware that putting on a show isn't easy, even at a fleabite level.

It's certainly not bad. It has its fans. But it's not for me.