An Actor's Revenge (Criterion)

I recently decided to revisit Kon Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge (!963), because it was re-released by Criterion with several extras. The film is a singular achievement by Ichikawa for several reasons-it was a studio assignment, a remake of a classic film based on a well-known kabuki revenge play from the 30s meant to commemorate Kazuo Hasegawa's 300 film appearance at the age of 56 (he also starred in the original version). Hasegawa would return to the two roles he played inthe original-Yukinojo, the onnagata (female impersonator) of a traveling kabuki theater set on the revenge of his parents and the role of the Robin-Hood-like thief Yamitarō. Thus, Ichikawa was faced with several problems of how to create a fresh version of the story that was appropriate for audiences for the 60s. Many of the top stars of the mid 60s cinema appeared in the film in supporting roles: the targets of the revenge are Dobe (Ganjiro Nkamura known for several roles with Ozu among) others), Kawaguchiya (Saburo Date who appeared in films by Mizoguchi among others), and Hiromiya (Eijiro Yanagi who also appeared in severla films by Mizoguchi among others), two leading film actresses had roles in the film as well Ayako Wada as Lady Namiji and Fujiko Yamamoto as Ohatsu the thief. Ichikawa decided to focus on the theatrical aspect of the story filming exclusively on stage sets of artificial locations often within a dark background and employed several cinematic conventions of the silent era throughout the film which underscores the story origins in kabuki. The final product is highly stylized film that  is a one off in Ichikawa's oeuvre. The Criterion extras include: a new 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, a rare 1999 Directors Guild of Japan interview with director Kon Ichikawa, conducted by critic and filmmaker Yuki Mori, a new interview with critic, filmmaker, and festival programmer Tony Rayns, a new English subtitle translation, and an essay by critic Michael Sragow.