Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935) User Reviews

Pots of Confusions

[boblipton · 7/10 · 15 December 2018]

A stingy lord learns an heirloom pot is painted with a map to a hoard that would make its owner the richest man in Japan. However, he has already given it to his brother as a cheap wedding gift; his wife has sold it to a junk dealer, who has given it to.... well, no one knows where it is, but as this funny comedy directed by Sadao Yamanaka progresses, more and more people learn of the pot's existence; they all cross paths with each other

It's a Japanese version of THE TWELVE CHAIRS, originally a Russian comedy. The plot has been adapted at least twenty times over the years in many countries. In this version, not only is the situation funny, but the film is populated with characters who break the stereotypical roles. Not only is there the tight-fisted lord, but Denjirô Ôkôchi plays his one-eyed, one-armed ronin as a sentimental, henpecked kept man. There is also an incompetent dojo master dominated by his jealous wife, and some musical interludes played on the samizen.

At more than an hour and a half, it may seem long for the lugubrious style of comedy that the Japanese preferred in this era. I found it to be well worth my time in its view of a Japan in which people are more human than the hard-as-nails cultural stereotypes that are better known.

Deeply Resonant Humor

[kurosawakira · 9/10 · 20 June 2014]

"Yamanaka's films are divinely innocent and at the same time desperately cruel", writes Aoyama Shinji. Indeed, even the lightest and most farcical of the three surviving films, "Tange Sazen" (1935) makes me laugh through tears.

Tange Sazen was created by Hasegawa Kaitarô under the pen name Hayashi Fubō in 1927-28, and it was an immensely popular character: the first films appeared in 1928, and made Tange Sazen a household name of sorts. Yamanaka's film appeared in 1935, and was "supposed" to be a sequel of sorts to two earlier features by Itô Daisuke. Indeed, Itô was supposed to direct this one as well, and Yamanaka was brought aboard only after Itô walked from the film.

But Yamanaka made the film the way he wanted it: Hayashi was reportedly so infuriated that he wanted his name taken off the credits of the film. Tange is seriously ironic not only towards the others but the film itself, and the genre it so expertly seems to trample and play with.

Another of Yamanaka's great skills as a storyteller is his ability to go beyond mere social allegory or statement. His allusions are subtle, I think, not at all heavy-handed, and this has more to do with what one might call detachment but what I see as an immense love for humanity. Even his last will exhibits this great, deeply resonant humor that is the soul of his films (Imamura is not so dissimilar in this respect). This statement in itself hardly gives justice to the complex host of characters he weaves out of light and shadow, and sound waves. It's not about clarity, I think, or an innate yearning for logic, but rather the elevation of the illogical in humanity wherein all tragedy, comedy and love emerge.

excellent humorous humanistic fun

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 10/10 · 5 July 2009]

Sadao Yamanaka's story is a bit tragic. He was a superb young director who was conscripted out to fight in the war of aggression in Manchuria, where he died at the age of 28 of dysentery (same age as me at the time of writing). By that age, in a seven year period this wunderkind directed 24 films. Unfortunately only three remain intact. This one, which is a jidaigeki comedy, Humanity and Paper Balloons, which is a humanist drama available on R2 DVD and Kochiyama soshun, which is apparently a pessimistic humanist kabuki adaptation that hardly anyone in the west has seen.

It's a very likable film. There's a pot that a daimyo lord owns that's an heirloom, it's not a very good pot though, just a cheap thing with a monkey painted on. As a cheeky jibe he gives it away to his brother-in-law (who is still quite well off but likes to have a moan because he's not filthy rich and is only a second son). Our pot-giver realises that he's given away this pot though and that it has a treasure map hidden on it that leads to a spot where a million ryo fortune has been buried (a huge sum of money). Unfortunately the wife of the pot receiver has given the pot away to the junk collector by the time all this is discovered.

So the whole film is ostensibly about the search for this pot in Edo.

I say ostensibly because those awaiting a journey out into the countryside in search of traysuuure will be out of luck. Yamanaka was a humanist, to him their were much more important things than a million ryo. The brother-in-law for example is bored of his irenic existence on his estate surrounded by retainers, and so uses the pot as a chance to go out and play, in fact, whilst all his retainers think he is out searching for the pot, he goes to an toy archery range and plays around at shooting targets and girl-watching. This dalliance away from his stuffy life is far more important to him than a million ryo.

Similarly with our hero, the one-armed, one-eyed, Sazen Tange, his existence as the guard of the archery range and his playful bickering with the proprietress is all that he wants.

It's a very funny film in that Sazen and his good lady always have bickering discussions where they make out that they're going to make the very worst moral decision possible, and then in the next scene we cut to them doing the right thing. There was one laugh out loud moment for me when they're arguing about their adopted son's education, Sazen wants him trained as a warrior whilst she wants him to be a scholar, they shout at each other "Dojo", "Teragoya" (school), "Dojo!", "Teragoya!", "Dojo!!", "Teragoya!!". Sazen screams at her "HOW WILL HE KNOW HOW TO DEFEAT AN ENEMY???".

What's uplifting is that Sazen has obviously been through a horrific battle trauma, his bad eye has a big scar right down it and his right arm is missing. But he doesn't moan about it at all. There's also a junk salesman who has no arms, and he just get's on with what he has to do too.

There's a deleted scene on the DVD with Sazen involved in a big battle against a bunch of retainers. It's exhilarating and good to watch, but would have compromised the humanism of the film, and so was probably justly cut.

Good stuff

One of the world's great 30s era films

[Steven_Harrison · 10/10 · 19 June 2006]

To say that I appreciate this film would be an enormous understatement- I love it. Every second is infused with comedy and humanity, artfully drawn with minimal but effective camera movement, unforgettable music, and pitch perfect character acting. The story is simple, a retainer has a pot which theoretically has a map on it telling the place of a large fortune. The pot is comically sold to some junk collectors before the retainer realizes it's worth, and a search for it throws the both "giri" and "ninjo" (a Japanese story telling tradition of how fealty and natural desires combat for one's dedication) into the wind. Do whatever you can to see this gem of a film from one of the world's all too unheralded Directors, Yamanaka Sadao (I believe you can find copies on eBay with English subtitles.) Highly recommended to fans of Japanese film, early thirties American comedies, and the art of socially pointed humor in general.

Completing the missing eye of dharma

[chaos-rampant · 18 November 2011]

Tange Sazen is the prototype mould of the embittered ronin, at least in film; from the outside gruff and alienated, often physically disfigured in some way implying wounds inside, however a soul scarred but gentle, operating the sword with a mindful emptiness that cut through all sorts of social hypocrisy. From that mould was cast the outcast image of Zatoichi and others from him, a long tradition that has been replicated wholesale in the West.

In time he would be mass produced from that mould in a score of films as just another serialized avenger, I have seen one of these in The Secret of the Urn from '66 and it is much in line with chambara of that period, pure antihero pulp; but here he is grafted into something else entirely by Sadao Yamanaka, this lone wolf placed at the crossroads of the most precious transitory humanity.

We know that Yamanaka started out under Makino, officially the founding father of Japanese film, and had plenty of experience making jidaigeki before the material for this came together. Another two films survive by him, Priest of Darkness and Humanity and Paper Balloons, increasingly despondent vision as I read. The day his last film premiered he was drafted in the Imperial Army for Manchuria. Less than a month later he was dead from dysentery.

By 1935 though, all sorts of darkness was still amassing over Japan. Just four years prior Manchuria had been invaded and was shakily maintained, and in two years time would break out a second Sino-Japanese war as prelude to the final defeat. The film underlies these, the increasingly anxious mobility - here in the form of a frantic quest for money - and yet hope against hope that humanity can prevail.

It is all centered around a pot worth a million ryo, the pot itself is plain and worthless but points to unimaginable riches. Of course it ends up in the possession of a child, mapping to the richness that matters, while everyone around him remains clueless. From this is structured a multitudinous effort to apprehend it, to actually see what has potential to enrich the soul.

Most of the action takes place in a tavern with a small archery range inside, where customers take turns firing arrows to impress the female company. The proprietor is Tange Sazen, with his woman as hostess playing samisen and singing mournfully about the transient world. A wonderful relationship emerges here between these unlikely foster parents and the orphan worth a million ryo, full of raw intimacy that cuts deep.

A second layer is woven around and mirrored to another couple; the scorned brother of a daimyo looking for the pot all over Edo, for wealth as well as status, but who instead of looking for it sneaks out every day to flirt with a courtesan, and his calculating wife who urges him away from her every day for that money. There is no love between these two, except as a polite lie, and only deceit and increasing mistrust.

It would've been excellent as just a gentle comedy about the gaffes of love, but look what Yamanaka does to bring it together in yet another level, it's a masterful device really.

The archery range is lined with little dharma dolls for the winners, popular tokens in Japan for good luck. Customarily, these are offered with both eyes blank, the recipient fills one upon setting a goal, the second upon completion. To see with both eyes then in the utmost sense would be to be fully awakened, fully enlightened.

There is a lot of effort to see in the film, as mentioned, for example there is an amazing scene where the brother, a dojo master in name, is mistaken in the dark for a thief and beaten up by his own servants. But was he sneaking out for love or money, such are the wonderful dilemmas posed here. His wife sees him cavorting with the courtesan using a spyglass. Meanwhile characters spend the film looking for what is in plain sight of them.

But Tange Sazen, himself one-eyed, one-armed, meaning he has actually embodied, having lost and suffered, what it means that the world is fleeting and suffering, he sees; but sees from the heart. So even though devastating karmas are gradually set in motion over the course of the film, all having to do with money with lives hanging in the balance, he has the eye that cuts through. He knows there is no sense trying to figure what set them in motion, only to purify now. So having lost one, he has both eyes open.

Near the end Tange Sazen storms the dojo to challenge the students for money. Being a superb swordsman, he could have plainly got what he wanted. But he concedes to lose and be humbled.

Eventually no one is richer in gold but everyone is where it matters. Sazen is still baffled at his woman, tosses an arrow. The final image is of the gods on strings coming down to dance and smile.

Something to meditate upon.