"The Izu Dancer" - Two versions of a Japanese classic, one with Maki Goto

I found a DVD in Book Off with pictures of all the members of Morning Musume, ca. 2002, on the case and the English title, “Love Stories” under a title in Japanese letters. Intrigued, I bought it and took it home and learned that it was a collection of three dramas shown on Japanese television (TBS) on January 2, 2002 (ten years ago) under the title “Shinshun! Love Stories.” It contains adaptations of the classic story, “The Izu Dancer”; the popular manga, “Smart-san”; and “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” a story I’d previously seen in both animated and live-action movie versions. Morning Musume had 13 members at the time and they’re divided up so that three of them are in the first story, seven in the second and three in the third. As expected, the whole thing was in Japanese with no subtitles, so I got out my copy of “The Izu Dancer and Other Stories” and read the story by Yasunari Kawabata in preparation for watching the version of that story on the new DVD.




I also dug out my copy of an animated half-hour version that was shown on the series, “Animated Classics of Japanese Literature” in 1986 and watched that.


The story is 21 pages long and was written in 1927. It tells a simple tale of a 19-year-old male student from Tokyo, using his vacation time to travel and wander in the countryside, who takes notice of a young dancer who is part of a family of traveling entertainers. He becomes friendly with the family and arranges his journey to be able to travel with them for as long as he can.

The dancing girl, named Kaoru, who is all of 13, feels the first stirrings of young love for the boy and he is quite enchanted with her. They walk and talk and play the game of “Go” together. He watches her perform, from afar, when he gets the chance. He reads to her from the classics and promises to come visit her on the family’s home island of Oshima. The family seems to encourage the attention, but when he asks if he can take her to the cinema one night without a chaperone, the mother says no. He eventually heads back to Tokyo by boat, leaving the girl waving tearfully from the dock as he goes. The entire encounter, alas, seems fated to become nothing more than a pleasant memory from his youth.

While it’s not stated in the story, I like to think that the boy, unnamed in the story, is attracted to Kaoru’s simple, traditional beauty and the pure and innocent aura that shines around her in spite of her low status as a “vagrant” traveling player. She would represent quite a change from the more westernized Tokyo girls he’d be used to.


In the version with Morning Musume, Maki Goto plays the young dancer, although she was a little too old for the part (she was 16 at the time).

Risa Niigaki, a recent addition to Morning Musume at the time, was the right age at the time, although maybe too inexperienced to play a leading role. There is lots of added drama to this version to pad out the running time to 50 minutes, including a whole dramatic scene with a character not in the story, played here by Kei Yasuda. It’s a nine-minute scene and I never quite understood the significance of it. Maki goes to visit Kei somewhere, but Kei is being taken away by a man. She and Maki have a tearful separation scene, ended when the man abruptly slaps Kei. Maki stands there crying. Maki calls Kei “On-na'-chan.” Big sister?




Nozomi Tsuji plays the young maid who accompanies the family. She also dances at times. She’s silent in the original story, but has a lot to say in the TV drama. (As if anyone could keep Nono quiet.) Her character is not even in the anime version.



There are other scenes where the family discusses things among themselves that are not in the original story, which is told entirely in the first person by the student. At one point, Maki argues with her mother and gets slapped by her. This wasn’t in the story, either. This is the second time Maki cries in the program. (And it makes her the second Morning Musume member to get slapped in this episode.) It pains me to see Maki cry.



Maki is a good actress and tries hard to be attentive to the boy in the deferential manner considered proper at the time of the story, but the two don’t have much chemistry. A younger actress could have portrayed puppy love more convincingly. Maki has a look on her face that’s a little too world-weary for the part. Nono, who was 14 at the time, might have been a better choice for the role, and could have conveyed the puppy love aspect with relish, although she might have had trouble with the deferential part. (To be honest, though, that kind of youthful, chaste flirtation and attraction is difficult to dramatize on film and hard to cast appropriately.)

I can’t identify the actor who plays the student. He doesn’t have much range. Is he a pop star also?

The anime version, part of a series that adapted a couple dozen or so Japanese authors, is, overall, very beautifully designed and drawn. One can argue that the character designs are too simple, which is true of that whole series, but I think these designs do succeed in capturing the essence of these characters. There is certainly greater attention paid to the landscapes and the coloring of the autumn season than there was in the live-action version.



There’s quite a difference in production values between the animated version and the live-action TV drama. You’ve got stately compositions and elegant design in one and lots of handheld camera, long lens shots and bad angles in the other. (Who was in charge of the later version? The same crew that shoots the Hello! Project concerts?)

Some comparisons:












There are scenes involving lecherous behavior toward the girl in both the anime and the TV drama, although neither is in the original story. In the anime, the boy has a nightmare of a traveling salesman grabbing at the girl. In the drama, another male character--an innkeeper?--puts his hand in an inappropriate spot on Kaoru in full view of her family.



There is an outdoor bathing scene in the story that is depicted in the anime, complete with nude shots. The girl, while bathing, spots the boy and innocently steps out to wave to him. (Casual nudity in bathing and shower scenes is not uncommon in anime.) The scene is also there in the live-action version, but Maki stays well covered throughout.



In fact, we see more of the boy than we do of Maki:


I must say I liked the anime version a lot better than the live-action TV drama, simply because it was shorter (25 min.) and closer in tone and spirit to the actual short story, as well as being a better-looking visual enterprise.

There have been earlier live-action film versions of "The Izu Dancer," including one made in color by Nikkatsu in 1963 that’s available on CDJapan. Two other Japanese pop music greats starred in film versions of the story. Hibari Misora starred in a black-and-white film in 1954, while Momoe Yamaguchi starred in a color film made in 1974, so it’s clear that Maki is in great company. I’m concerned, though, about the padding to the story required to make a feature-length film out of this material. Still, I’d love to see both Hibari’s and Momoe’s versions. (Hibari’s version is out-of-print on CDJapan, while Momoe’s version isn’t even listed.)

Here's a poster from Momoe's version:


And here's a link to a webpage on the original author, which contains a complete trailer for Momoe's version. The trailer is near the bottom of the page:
http://www.plathey.net/livres/japon/kawabata.html

Next up: I plan to watch the animated version of “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” (2006) and then watch the TV drama version with Nacchi, Kaori and Aibon.

ADDENDUM (2/18/12): Since posting the above entry I have acquired both the 1963 and 1974 film versions of "The Izu Dancer" and watched them. They make interesting comparisons with the two later versions covered above. I'll deal with them in a future entry.