Price : | |
Weight : | 200 g |
Director : | Yuki Canda , |
Year : | 2012 |
Genre : | Others , |
Language : | Japanese , |
Video Format : | NTSC , |
Audio Format : | AUDIO STEREO , |
Discs : | 1 |
Region Code : | ALL , |
Model : | DVD , |
Rakugo, the ancient Japanese art of sit-down comedy, has inspired movies including Shinpei Hayashiya’s “Rakugo Monogatari (Rakugo Story)” (2010) and Hideyuki Hirayama’s “Shaberedomo Shaberedomo (Talk, Talk, Talk)” (2007), but Yuji Kanda’s “Tokyo Teyandei: The Story Teller’s Apprentice” (simply called “The Story Teller’s Apprentice” in English) is probably the first to unfold entirely backstage at a Tokyo yose (variety) theater.
Based on a hit play by the Uwanosora Toshiro-ichiza theater troupe, the film tracks the comings and goings, ups and downs in the theater’s green room in the course of one day’s program, if not in real time. As might be expected, there are gags aplenty, though we see no actual rakugo performed. Instead we glimpse faces in the audience and hear snatches of laughter and applause from the point of view of the performers behind the curtain.