The most popular samurai in Edo, Saotome Mondonosuke is also known as Bored Hatamoto. Utaemon Ichikawa first started playing this role all the way back in 1930, making this the longest running Japanese film series starring a single actor - thanks Japanonfilm - even if Shintaro Katsu played Zatoichmore time if you count the TV series.
But imagine this: Utaemon Ichikawa played the same role in the same continuing series of films from Japan's silent era all the way up until 1963, through World War II - which cost many of the films, as they simply no longer exist - and due to the restrictions of the end of the war, period samurai dramas were restricted until the late 1950s. At that point, Ichikawa was in his fifties but still making movies.
Bored Hatamoto is marked with a crescent scar and is a near-ronin, masterless to all other samurai other than the Tokugawa shogun. He's a virtuous character who solves crimes, like Sherlock Holmes, but if Holmes could fight a hundred other swordsmen at the same time.
The women who live near a shrine keep getting killed by bats, except they're not bats. They're flying ninja that live inside a gigantic cave above the holy place. Our hero also has four sidekicks, which seems like a ton, but hey, when you have a film series that lasts this long and then continues as a TV series with your son taking over the role, you have a good formula.
This also reminds me of American Westerns of this time, as this is basically a variety show. There's fighting, there's comedy, there's song and dance from a variety of acts. When you went to the movies back in the early 60s - or the 50s in America with our singing cowboys - you got a full buffet and not just a main course.
Also: Ninja are seen in America as an 80s trend. As in so many other pop culture ways, Japan was ahead of us.
But imagine this: Utaemon Ichikawa played the same role in the same continuing series of films from Japan's silent era all the way up until 1963, through World War II - which cost many of the films, as they simply no longer exist - and due to the restrictions of the end of the war, period samurai dramas were restricted until the late 1950s. At that point, Ichikawa was in his fifties but still making movies.
Bored Hatamoto is marked with a crescent scar and is a near-ronin, masterless to all other samurai other than the Tokugawa shogun. He's a virtuous character who solves crimes, like Sherlock Holmes, but if Holmes could fight a hundred other swordsmen at the same time.
The women who live near a shrine keep getting killed by bats, except they're not bats. They're flying ninja that live inside a gigantic cave above the holy place. Our hero also has four sidekicks, which seems like a ton, but hey, when you have a film series that lasts this long and then continues as a TV series with your son taking over the role, you have a good formula.
This also reminds me of American Westerns of this time, as this is basically a variety show. There's fighting, there's comedy, there's song and dance from a variety of acts. When you went to the movies back in the early 60s - or the 50s in America with our singing cowboys - you got a full buffet and not just a main course.
Also: Ninja are seen in America as an 80s trend. As in so many other pop culture ways, Japan was ahead of us.
