- Title: JAPAN: A gay samurai biker film is set to make it's coming out on the world stage
- Date: 1st December 2005
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (RECENT - NOVEMBER 14, 2005) (REUTERS) ACTOR SHICHINOSUKE NAKAMURA ENTERING A ROOM AT THE OFFICES OF ASMIK ACE (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) ACTOR NAKAMURA SHICHINOSUKE SAYING: "Since three years old (when I started in Kabuki) I have always worn a black haired wig. All the more reason for me to wonder what will become of wearing a blonde wig? I was a bit worried about it."
- Embargoed: 16th December 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Reuters ID: LVACJHMHFFDMHJLKNMPKW48PRQ5W
- Story Text: Gay samurai on motorcycle take a hallucinatory road trip so one of them can drop a bad drug habit in a zippy new independent Japanese film "Yaji and Kita, the Midnight Cowboys". The film kicks off with a musical number that spoofs "Born to be Wild", this one titled "Born to be Gay". Add to that elephants that have tasty fins and poisonous eyebrows, mushrooms that pop out of the face, a bearded geisha that has a hit at the top of the pop charts, and a slew of musical numbers and you start to get an idea of the zany world of Yaji and Kita. Imagine "Rocky Horror Picture Show" meets "Easy Rider" meets "Yojimbo". The film is the directorial debut of screenwriter Kankuro Kudo, author of popular Japanese youth culture films including "Go" and "Ping Pong". While made for the Japanese audience, due to the film's domestic success it is now slated for foreign distribution. But the director worries what perception his film sends of contemporary Japan. "We Japanese people no longer wear our hair in the topknot (traditional samurai) style and usually we wear Western clothes. Knowing that, I thought it would be interesting to see a period film with guys wearing topknots riding a motorcycle. Still I thought what if people from around the world see this film and think Japan is this country with guys dressed as samurai riding motorcycles?" said Kankuro Kudo. Based on a best selling manga series, "Yaji and Kita, the Midnight Pilgrims" is the story of the adventure of two low level samurai, madly in love, who take a treacherous journey from the capital Edo to the famous Ise temple. While the film is set in the age of the samurai, anachronistically elements of modern Japanese culture are mixed in. Samurai rapping in gold chains, football players, samba dancers, miniature Tamiya tanks, a bearded geisha that has a hit at the top of the pop charts, and an audience of middle aged Japanese women in sweatshirts that get pummelled by the god of laughter are all hallucinations of the blond haired Kita who is suffering withdrawal symptoms. Since the film was backdroped against nineteenth century Japan a team of technical staff with years of experience making period films was employed. While blonde hair dyes are very popular with contemporary Japanese youth what about a blonde haired samurai? "There has never been a period film using a blonde (samurai style) wig. The (professional movie) wig makers said later they thought 'what (kind of movie) does this director want to make?' The blond Kita is played by Shichinosuke Nakamura, a sixth generation Kabuki actor. With an appearance in "The Last Samurai" in the role of the Emperor Meiji Nakamura launched a career as a film actor. "Yaji and Kita" is a wild departure from the world of Kabuki with its highly ritualized and formal performances and accompanying culture something that Shichinosuke had to think about. "Since three years old (when I started in Kabuki) I have always worn a black haired wig. All the more reason for me to wonder what will become of wearing a blonde wig? I was a bit worried about it." However he soon grew into the role. Even his father, famous in his own right as a respected Japanese Kabuki actor got into the act. Shichinosuke Nakamura and his father Kankuro Nakamura have performed together many times on the stage but with this film they appear on the silver screen for the first time. They are also used to elaborate costumes but this time was a bit different. "I really think our appearance was outlandish (in that scene), both of us. In that scene I used my own hair (no wig). I had piercings up and down my ear. My hair was pure white. My hand is connected (to the other actor Tomoya Nagase). My father was dressed to look kind of like a king. It was supposed to be a (respectable) appearance by father and son but…" The two samurai, Yaji and Kita, travel a road fraught with trial and tribulation with one of them even wandering around hell for a while trying to get back to life. Much like contemporary Japanese youth the two share a surreal world of clashed cultures and in the end what binds and keeps them is the love and friendship that they share, now they only have to figure out how to stop those mushrooms from growing on the face. The film will appear in limited release in the U.S. sometime early summer 2006.
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