Kōchiyama Sōshun (film)

Kōchiyama Sōshun (河内山宗俊), also known in English as Priest of Darkness, is a 1936 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Sadao Yamanaka.^[3] It is one of three surviving films by the director.

Kōchiyama Sōshun
Scene from Kōchiyama Sōshun
Directed by	Sadao Yamanaka
Written by	Shintarō Mimura (screenplay) Sadao Yamanaka (story)
Produced by	Nikkatsu Taiqin Sound Film Company
Cinematography	Harumi Machii
Music by	Gorō Nishi
Distributed by	Nikkatsu
Release date	30 April 1936 (1936-04-30) (Japan) [1][2]
Running time	87 minutes[1][2]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Cast

• Chojuro Kawarasaki – Kōchiyama Sōshun
• Kanemon Nakamura – Kaneko
• Shizue Yamagishi – Oshizu
• Setsuko Hara – Onami
• Daisuke Katō (credited as Enji Ichikawa) – Kenta

Production

The original idea for Kōchiyama Sōshun came from a Kabuki play by Kawatake Mokuami, known as Kochiyama to naozamurai. In the play, the two title characters are petty criminals from the Ueno district of Edo (now Tokyo).^[3] Yamanaka changed some of the characters from the play to be more good-natured, in keeping with his film aesthetic.^[4] He also modernized the Kabuki play by casting actors from the Zenshin-za Group, which aimed to bring modern acting techniques to traditional Kabuki plays.^[3]

References

1. "河内山宗俊 (Kōchiyama Sōshun)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 August 2022.
2. "河内山宗俊(1936) (Kōchiyama Sōshun)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 August 2022.
3. McDonald, Keiko (1994). Japanese classical theater in films. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 158–164. ISBN 978-0-8386-3502-5.
4. Richie, Donald (2005). A hundred years of Japanese film: a concise history, with a selective guide to DVDs and videos. Kodansha International. p. 73. ISBN 978-4-7700-2995-9.

External links

• Kōchiyama Sōshun at IMDb