There are quite a few plays that take place in a single room that get optioned for potential movies. Normally the first thing a producer or director ponders is how can they open it up. Is there a way to take a few scenes outside the single location. Unlike a Broadway audience, the moviegoing audience are perceived as getting bored seeing the characters stuck in one set. They also want the movie script to feel less talky. They’ll suggest shooting the past events mentioned by the characters to achieve a “show don’t tell” state of entertainment. With rare exceptions, the one room play gets completely changed around if it makes from the stage to the silver screen. Elegant Beast was a stage play by Kaneto Shindō. From reports, the stage version takes place in a cramped two room apartment. There are no bedrooms since family members sleep on the floor. Instead of opening the script up, director Yuzo Kawashima keeps the action in the small space and the long staircases of the building. Elegant Beast takes us to the heart of the hustle.
The Maeda family lives together in a two-room apartment on the 10th floor of a building that doesn’t feature an elevator. Father Tokizo (Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance‘s Yunosuke Ito) and mother Yoshino (Hisano Yamaoka) are moving the good stuff like the TV set, the Renoir painting and the chairs into the second room. They want to make their main room look like they’re broke. Why? Because the son’s boss at a music talent agency and the accountant Yukie (Red Angel‘s Ayako Wakao) are arriving. They bring along their client Pinosaku (The Eel’s Shoichi Ozawa) who swears the son cashed his TV appearance check and never gave it to him. Pinosaku looks like a cross between Elvis and Col. Sanders so you know he was popular in Japan in 1962. It turns out there’s a lot of money missing at the agency that can be linked back to the son. Why isn’t the boss grilling the son? Because he hasn’t seen him for four days. Mom and Dad act concerned but don’t quite throw the kid under the bus. After the music agency folks leave, the son Minoru (Manamitsu Kawabata) sneaks in the apartment. He’s shocked at how much his boss claims he’s embezzled since it’s a lot more than he’s taken. Their daughter is also taking someone for a ride. Tomoko (Yūko Hamada) is the mistress of a popular writer (Cruel Story of Youth‘s Yūko Hamada). Dad has been having her borrow large amounts of cash from the guy. The writer is kind of ticked off because he rented the apartment for Tomoko as their little love nest. Little did he know the rest of the family would be moving into the apartment. The Medeas are a family of hustlers with Dad as the ringleader. Dad approves of their behavior since under no circumstances will he all the family to move back to the barracks and eat rice gruel. The cramped apartment is not the worse place for a family of four to call home. We also learn that the family’s victims are running their own hustles.
For a film that takes place in such a tiny space, you don’t feel bored being stuck in the apartment. Director Yuzo Kawashima and Cinematographer Nobuo Munekawa come up with fantastic angles and blocking the actors to really take advantage of every square foot of the tiny apartment. There’s even a glimpse of the toilet which in the early ’60s was almost a forbidden object. The characters hide behind curtains to give others the sense of privacy in the space. Instead of opening up the play, the theatrical experience takes us deeper into the play. The cast working their hustles keeps the talking exciting. Yunosuke Ito lets us know that the dad might not be able to get his payoffs on the track or in semi-legit business ventures, but he’s raised his kids right when it comes to working their targets. But he’s not the biggest con artist in the movie. Ayako Wakao’s accountant character seems quiet and as if she’s the victim of Minoru scam. Turns out she is running a next level game for her big swindle. This is a masterpiece about scammers. Elegant Beast stays true to its stage roots while feeling so cinematic.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The new 4K transfer brings out the details of life in a Japanese apartment in the early ’60s. Plus you’ll really dig the guy dressed up like a hipster Col. Sanders. The Audio is the Japanese track in LPCM 2.0 Mono. It’s a clean soundtrack so you’ll hear things clearly. The movie is subtitled in English.
Interview with film critic Toshiaki Sato (16:35) gets into the career of director Yuzo Kawashima. He made 51 films for all the major film studios in Japan in all sorts of genres. He gets into the common threads between his main characters.
Appreciation by filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda (14:21) has him explain that after he saw Elegant Beast, he tracked down the rest of Yuzo Kawashima’s films. He talks of the director’s back ailment and his early death at 45. He gets into the script for Elegant Beast and how had laid out how to shoot the film before production.
The Age of The Danchi (11:38) has critic Tom Mes explore post-war architecture in Japanese cinema. While the two-room apartment was built on a soundstage, the space reflects a real apartment in the area. He gets into how the apartments spurred on the rise of the Japanese urban middle class. There are vintage films showing off the apartment life promised at the time to the “new Japanese.”
Trailer (2:16) introduces us to the family of hustlers and their victims who aren’t quite so innocent.
Limited edition booklet featuring essays and publicity photos from the film’s release.
Radiance Films present Elegant Beast: Limited Edition. Directed by Yuzo Kawashima. Screenplay by Kaneto Shindō. Starring Ayako Wakao, Yūnosuke Itō, Hisano Yamaoka, Yūko Hamada, Hideo Takamatsu, Eiji Funakoshi, Manamitsu Kawabata and Shōichi Ozawa. Running Time: 96 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: December 19, 2023.
