THE Japan Foundation in Manila proudly brings a rare performance by Japanese-renowned benshi, or silent-film narrator, Ichiro Kataoka, who will accompany Yasujiro Ozu’s silent 1933 gangster film Dragnet Girl (Hijyosen no onna) on Saturday, September 2, at 5:30 p.m., during the 11th International Silent Film Festival Manila to be held at Shangri-La Cineplex, Shangri-La Plaza from August 31 to September 3.
Throughout the world, silent films were shown with musical accompaniment. However, those screened in Japan from the turn of the century to the mid-1930s were not only shown with live music but also a performer, known as a katsudo benshi or benshi for short, delivering live performance acting as a narrator, actor and storyteller.
Standing next to the screen, the benshi provides everything an audience may need to fully appreciate and enjoy a silent film. Some of the benshis were stars, and had their own followers, making them more popular than the movie itself at the time. With the advent of sound on film, benshis disappeared, but a small number continued to perform along with silent-film screenings, keeping this unique tradition and art of narration alive.
Kataoka is one of the best-known active professional benshis in Japan today. He has been narrating more than 350 silent films not only in Japan but internationally, having been invited to perform at festivals and special screenings around the world, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the US. A star student of master benshi Midori Sawato, he is also a film and television performer and a voice actor for animation and video games. This is his first time to perform in the Philippines.
Considered as one of Japanese cinema’s masterpieces, Dragnet Girl is about a bodyguard committing robbery to help a subordinate in trouble, and plans to make a getaway, but is confronted by his lover, a typist who, by night, inhibits the world of the yakuza.
The movie will be presented in a rare 35mm and lasts 100 minutes. Kataoka will narrate the film in Japanese, and there will be subtitles of his narration in English. He will also briefly explain about the history of benshi and answer questions from the audience.
Along with Kataoka’s captivating live interpretations of the silent film will be the acclaimed Celso Espejo Rondalla performing their own original musical score, giving an authentic Philippine flavor to the Japanese classical film. Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis.