Radical Shakespeare rework reflects modern Japan and its problems
FILM
Bard to the Future
Radical Shakespeare rework reflects modern Japan and its problems
The film includes masked dance-drama of Sado Island.
By Julian Ryall
• Adaptation set on stunning Sado Island
• Noh masks, dramatic scenery, sheer cliffs, primal forest
• Big-screen debut held in Shibuya
Welsh filmmaker John Williams has taken one of William Shakespeare’ s most well-known plays, turned it upside down, inserted a Japanese rock-and-roll band, and set it 30 years in the future and on remote Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture.
The film is such a radical departure from the Bard’ s work that it is not at all certain that he himself would recognise it as an adaptation of The Tempest.
“ It has taken a long time to turn the original idea into the rather strange beast that it has become”, Williams admitted at a discussion of Sado Tempest the day before the film’ s big-screen debut on 16 February at Shibuya’ s Eurospace cinema.
The Japanese-language film— which has English subtitles— is set entirely on Sado Island, and weaves into the storyline the traditional culture of the former place of exile. As well as incorporating oni-daiko— a traditional religious masked dance-drama of the island that is believed to ward off devils as well as be a prayer for a bountiful harvest— together with Noh masks and lyrics, the film makes the most of the isle’ s dramatic scenery, from the ruins of a gold mine to the sheer sea cliffs, the primal forest at the heart of the island and the abandoned Sensoji temple.
However, the story begins far removed from the island. The always-angry frontman( Juntoku) of a four-piece punk band( Jitterbug) collapses on stage and all are transported to the island for crimes against the state.
Imprisoned and forced to pan for gold by the warden, they are told they can never escape their exile. The storyline takes a turn with the arrival of a mad woman( Miranda), who repeats lines from Noh plays. She is the daughter of a scientist( Omuro), who had previously come to the island to carry out experiments, but who had doomed the island to permanent winter after a storm had destroyed his secret genetic laboratory.
Juntoku escapes from the prison, begins to put Miranda’ s poetry to music, and roams the forest in the heart of the island, meeting cannibals and demons along the way, and even Omuro. But there is a final twist in the tale.
The parallels between Shakespeare’ s version of events and the film that Williams has produced are clear, although the differences are stark.
46 | BCCJ ACUMEN | JUNE 2013