Title: Ichikawa Kon
1Ichikawa Kon
2Ichikawa Kon
- Ichikawa made 80 feature films between 1946 and
2006 - I dont have any unifying theme. I just make
pictures I like
3Ichikawa Kon
- Born in 1915
- Entered Kyoto JO Studio as an animator in 1933.
- When JO was merged with PCL in 1937 and became
Toho, he became an assistant director.
4Ichikawa belongs to the generation of the
directors who started career during WWII. He
became a prominent post-war film director along
with Kurosawa Akira and Kinoshita Keisuke.
5Ichikawa Kon
- His childhood love of drawing and his dream of
being an painter. - His fascination with chambara and samurai films
- His love of the Disney animations
- I am a cartoonist and I think that the greatest
influence on my films (besides Chaplin)is
probably Disney.
6Ichikawa Kon
- Met Yumiko Nogi (later Wada Natto), a translator,
at Toho Studios. - Wada Natto became a screenwriter for most of
Ichikawas films. - She agreed to marry him after the completion of
his first film.
7- Debuted as director with Musume Dojoji (A Girl at
Dojoji Temple) in 1945 - Mainly worked on screwball comedies and satires
in his early career
8- Mr. Pu (1953) is about a school teacher who goes
paralyzed with the fear of A-bomb and The
Millionaire (1954) is an absurd comedy on a man
who is determined to avoid to be a nuclear target
and moves to a derelict house only to find his
neighbour making an A-bomb.
9- Cold War - fear of the outbreak of a nuclear war
- Daigo Fukuryu Maru, exposed and contaminated by
nuclear fallout near Bikini Atoll, 1st March,
1954 - Godzilla (1954)
10Ichikawa from metteur en scène to auteur.
1951 5 films
1952 5 films
1953 4 films
1954 4 films
1955 2 films
1956 3 films
1957 3 films
1958 1 film
1959 3 films
1960 3 films
1961 1 film
11Ichikawas Films
- In the later part of the 50s Ichikawa turned to
more serious subjects. - The Burmese Harp (1956) a lyrical epic about a
Japanese soldier who became a Buddhist monk from
the guilt of his complicity with killing.
12Ichikawas Films
- Enjo (1958) is about a novice monk who sets fire
on Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavillion) as he does
not want to watch its purity and beauty being
tainted by human corruption and greed.
13Ichikawas Films
- Fires on the Plain (1959) is about a soldier in
the retreating army in the Philippines who
refuses to eat human flesh despite the desperate
shortage of food.
14- Punishment Room (1956) is about a college student
who has no respect for his hard-working parents.
He rapes one of his classmates and provoke the
gang of the youth to criminal actions.
15Ichikawas Films
- Odd Obsession (1959) is about a man getting on in
years who sets out to find a way to resurrect his
flagging virility and sexual passion by
deliberately making his own wife flirting with a
young, handsom doctor.
16Ichikawa as Auteur
- Do Ichikawas films have any consistent themes
and styles which qualify him as auteur? - Eclectic motifs, social and personal concerns,
themes and styles
17Ichikawa as Auteur
- Mere illustrator - Oshima Nagisa
- Elements which may make Ichikawa an auteur the
total control of filmmaking (he designed sets,
adjusted the lighting, touched up actresses'
make-up and went to music school so he could
write scores
18Ichikawa as Auteur
- James Quandt (ed.), Kon Ichikawa, Cinémathèque
Ontario, Toronto, 2001 - His abiding concern is with the recent history of
his country his background and experiences still
demonstrably shape the abiding concerns of his
films. A native of the Kansai region, he set many
films in its major cities of Osaka and Kyoto - Alexander Jacoby
19Ichikawa as Auteur
- Working in every available genre and turning out
several films for every major company and
claiming that he makes the films that he likes,
he has been the most successful in adapting
literary works into films.
20The Burmese Harp ? Takeyama Michios Biruma no
TategotoEnjo ? Mishima Yukios Kinkakuji
21Odd Obsession, Makioka Sisters ? Tanizaki
Junichiros Kagi and SasameyukiKokoro, I Am a
Cat ? Natsume Sosekis Kokoro and Wagahai wa
Neko de aru
22Fires on the Plain ? Ooka Shoheis
NobiPunishment Room ? Shintaro Ishiharas Shokei
no Heya
23Bridge of Japan ? Izumi Kyokas Nihonbashi Hakai
? Shimazaki Tosons Hakai
24Ichikawas Literary Adaptation
- Retelling literary stories in effective and
entertaining ways - Require the power to interpret the literary text
accurately (and originally) and the skill to
visualize it with Wada Natto
25Ichikawas Literary Adaptation
- Wada Natto - Ichikawas scriptwriter since Human
Patterns (1949) and wife - she provided 34
scripts, most of which were the adaptations of
literary works - Special talent for adapting non-cinematic
sources.
26Ichikawas Literary Adaptation
- Ichikawas talent to adapting into the film the
text whose visualization is considered almost
impossible or extremely difficult, contextually
and technically - He adapt not only literary works but also the
most well-known and the best loved works. - Takeyamas The Burmese Harp (the best seller)
- Misimas The Temple of Golden Pavilion (based on
a real and controversial event) - Tanizakis Makioka Sisters (epic length
psychological novel) - Sosekis I am a cat and Kokoro (literary
classics) - Ishiharas Punishment Room (youth subjects)
27Ichikawas Literary Adaptation
- He is able to etch complex characters
- The stuttering young monk who burns down Golden
Pavillion in Enjo - The elderly husband who resorts to injections and
voyeurism in order to remain sexually active in
Odd Obsession
28Ichikawas Literary Adaptation
- The member of a pariah class who tries to deny
his identity and to pass in regular society in
Hakai - The soldier who survived in a extreme and insane
condition and kept his sanity in Fires on the
Plain
29Ichikawas Literary Adaptation
- Actions are seen and filmed from the view point
of a black cat (I am a cat) or a two-years old
boy (Being two isnt easy) - Exaggerated visual styles - stylization
30Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Flamboyant technical tricks
- Direct address to the audience
- Stop motions
- Pale, subdued, sepia colours
- As seen in Odd Obsession
31Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- A cinema character directly speaks to the camera.
32Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Visual repetition the same motif in reversed
composition. Stop motion
33Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Female sexuality and eroticism
- Colours of skin like wet porcelain
34Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Frequent close-ups without expression on
mask-like faces
35Ichikawa as Auteur Style
36Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Literary story retold in stylistic photography
- Miyagawa Kazuos cinematography
- Wide screen, low-key lighting, pictorial
composition and deep space - As seen in Enjo
37Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Exemplary wide-screen photography
- Expansive horizontal space
- A lone figure framed in the temple gate
38Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Psychological distance is represented visually by
separating the two characters in low-key
lighting.
39Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Deep space photography and low-key lighting
- A monk looking on his temple burning down to the
ground.
40Ichikawa as Auteur Style
41Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Pictorial Composition
- Decentred widescreen compositions
- Exaggerated raw colours, composition by colours
- Chiaro-scuro lighting and high-contrast
photography - As seen in Actors Revenge, 1963
42Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Exaggerated raw colour (blue), dramatic lighting,
and deep space composition
43Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Frequent extreme close-ups and placing of figures
to extreme corners in wide screen
44Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Female eroticism in close ups
45Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Dramatic lighting - a shaft of light going across
the actors face
46Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Dramatic lighting - strong light flood the face
of the actor
47Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Foreshortening technique creating a sense of depth
48Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- The style nurtured and developed in fiction films
were applied for his documentary visual tricks
through pictorial composition, multiple cameras,
telephoto lens, etc. - Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
49Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Long telephoto lenses loss of depth, sometimes
blurred
50Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Telephoto lens can separate athletes from others
and the setting surrounding them
51Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Blurred silhouette shot with splash reflecting
light
52Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Close-up shot of the sun with colours reversed
from those in the national flag
53Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- An gymnastic action divided into a sequence of
motions
54Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Aerial shot directly looking down below
55Ichikawa as Auteur Style
56Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- Insertions of non-diegetic close up shots
57Ichikawa as Auteur Style
- The most stylistic documentary film since Leni
Riefenstahls Fest der Volker and Fest der
Schönheit (1938)
58Ichikawa as Auteur Style