The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

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The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji虎の尾を踏む男達
Directed by
Kanze Kojiro Nobumitsu
Produced byMotohiko Ito
Starring
CinematographyTakeo Ito
Edited byToshio Goto
Music byTadashi Hattori
Production
company
Distributed byToho Company Ltd.
Release date
  • April 24, 1952 (1952-04-24)
Running time
59 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (Japanese: 虎の尾を踏む男達, Hepburn: Tora no O o Fumu Otokotachi) is a 1945 Japanese period drama film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, based on the kabuki play Kanjinchō, which is in turn based on the Noh play Ataka. It depicts a famous 12th century incident in which Yoshitsune and a small group of samurai cross into enemy territory disguised as monks.

The film was initially banned by the occupying

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), likely due to its portrayal of feudal values. Kurosawa blamed bureaucratic sabotage by the wartime Japanese censors, who also disapproved. It was later released in 1952 following the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco.[1]

Plot

In 1185, the

Todai temple
in Nara.

Cast

Production

Filming was conducted on a single set (1945)

According to Stephen Prince, Akira Kurosawa was in preproduction on a film about the Battle of Nagashino and Oda Nobunaga's use of firearms to defeat an enemy clan mounted on horseback with swords and spears, but his vision surpassed his resources.[2] In the last years of World War II, Japan was suffering from extreme privation and Toho had to make do with severely restricted means, such as spotty electricity often leaving them unable to light their sets. So Kurosawa switched to a new film, writing the script for The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail in a single night and promising the studio he would need only one set to make it.[2][a]

Prince writes that Kurosawa subverts the famous twelfth-century incident that the film adapts by depicting Benkei in full

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.[2]

Release

Japanese censors failed to give a file on the film to the censors of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, thus 1945's The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail was banned as an "illegal, unreported" production.[2] It was not released in Japan until 1952.

The Criterion Collection has released The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail on DVD in North America as part of two 2009 Kurosawa-centered box sets; The First Films of Akira Kurosawa, the 23rd entry in their Eclipse series, and AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa.[3]

Analysis

Critic David Conrad has said that the character of the porter, who does not exist in the original Noh or kabuki plays, prefigures Kurosawa's later commoner characters like the woodcutter in Rashomon and the villagers in Seven Samurai. "The presence of a low-class character among the high and mighty helps anchor the story in familiar ground, and the porter is free to express thoughts that proper samurai leave unsaid... Each of Kurosawa's later jidaigeki, and many of his gendaigeki as well, would use characters of different castes and classes to achieve something similar to this dynamic. His stories play out in three-dimensional social worlds, allowing him to explore events and themes from multiple perspectives."[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Prince writes that the abandoned project would later become Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980).[2]

References

  1. ^ Kurosawa 1983, pp. 143–44
  2. ^
    Criterion Collection
    . Retrieved 2022-11-24.
  3. ^ "The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail". Criterion. Retrieved 2022-11-24.
  4. ^ Conrad, David A. (2022). Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan, pp39-40.

Sources

External links

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