Shin Heike Monogatari (film)

Shin Heike Monogatari (新・平家物語, lit. "New Tale of the Heike") is a 1955 Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is based on a prose version by Eiji Yoshikawa of a Japanese epic poem, The Tale of the Heike.[note 1] It is Mizoguchi's second and last film in color, the other being Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Yōkihi) of the same year.

Shin Heike Monogatari
新・平家物語
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKenji Mizoguchi
Produced byMasaichi Nagata
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byKanji Suganuma
Music by
Distributed byDaiei Film
Release date
September 21, 1955 (Japan)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Critical reaction

Ian Cameron, editor of the British film magazine, Movie, wrote in 1962:[1] “The parallel between the historical action and the personal story gives Shin Heike Monogatari its particular beauty. Mizoguchi is arguably the greatest of directors. This is arguably his best film, and the best of all films.”

Kevin B Lee in a 2009 review for Slant Magazine found it a rather tentative attempt at color filmmaking and a self-conscious "prestige" picture, with Mizoguchi's usual themes present but at odds with the desire for spectacle and action of a samurai movie.[2] After the American release of the film in 1964, Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote that the plot was "subordinate to the decor".[3]

Various critics have suggested that the film's setting at the end of the Heian period, a politically unstable time, and its concern with the transition of power reflect the situation of Post-occupation Japan, when the film was made in the 1950s.[4]

Cast

Notes
  1. Yoshikawa's historical novel, The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War (Shin Heike Monogatari), was published as a serial by Asahi Shimbun from 1950 to 1957.

References
  1. Cameron, Ian (December 1962) 新・平家物語 Movie No.5, pp. 36–37.
  2. Lee, Kevin B (January 29, 2009). "952 (54). Shin heike monogatari / New Tales of the Taira Clan (1955, Kenji Mizoguchi)". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  3. Archer, Eugene (September 21, 1964). "Movie Review Tales of the Taira Clan (1955) Beauty From Japan". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  4. "Le héros sacrilège (1955) de Kenji Mizoguchi". L'Oeil sur L'Ecran. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.


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