Notes of an Itinerant Performer (1941) User Reviews (2)

The Good Servant

[boblipton · 7/10 · 7 September 2020]

Yaeko Mizutani has been a performer on the road .... well, forever. Her feet are blistered, the troupe is broke, their only venue is the street, so when a kindly tea merchant agrees to her being his guest until the troupe catches up, she agrees; actually, money changes hands between the merchant and the troupe manager, unbeknownst to her. No sooner do they arrive at his home than the rumors start to fly, and the merchant's daughter snubs her. Then the merchant dies, and his son, Ken Uehara comes home from college. He's ready to take over the failing business, but Miss Mizutani says she'll manage the house and the family for him while he gets his degree.

Miss Mizutani gives the most humble and iron-willed performance I have ever seen. It's a peculiarly Japanese movie, with everyone looking out for themselves, except her; it's a story worthy of Sholem Aleichem.

Beautiful, Unforgettable, Melodrama From a Japanese Master

[Steven_Harrison · 10/10 · 22 August 2005]

The plot is very simple, a shimpa melodrama set in the Meiji era (some things in common with Mizoguchi's shimpa work during the 50s). Uta, actress Mizutani Yaeko, a wandering actress tired of her life, is taken in by a generous and good natured tea merchant (until her troupe gets back with her) ostensibly to teach his daughter how to dance. He dies and leaves his family with a good deal of debt (there is also some social problem of having a wandering actress living with him and his family.) The merchant's son is left with the family business, which he is not experienced or learned enough to take care of, and dissolves it. At Uta's urging, he goes back to school, and she is left in charge of the family estate. Problems surface, and it builds in a fairly melodramatic climax.

The direction is that of a sort of gliding, at a distance. Shot by Ikai Suketaro, who also photographed his extremely beautiful film Kanzashi, Ornamental Hairpin, there are some shots in the beginning while a handful of itinerant performers are strolling through the forest that I will always have with me. Extremely satisfying to watch, you get the feeling that every beautiful shot was planned out meticulously, but there's also a feel of improvisation. Blacks, whites, and grays almost glowing, and in some ways it reminded me of Dreyer's Ordet (the funeral scene compares to the prayer scene in it's tracking shot over the faces of those attending.) This film (like all of Shimizu's films) certainly has a style of it's own. There is a total lack of "symobolism", leading one to regard them as "pure cinema", rather than any filmed theater or filmed novel. One frame can tell a story in his films, and it can also be an unforgettable landmark for remembering a character, or group of characters, in one of his stories. I can't wait to watch this again.

Steven