The Art of the Benshi: "Full-fledged artists in their own right"
April 7, 2024 12:44 AM   Subscribe

The Art of the Benshi: World Tour trailer. Tour dates (Brooklyn, this afternoon; DC, Apr. 12-14; Chicago, Apr. 16-17--sold out?; LA, Apr. 19 and 20-21; Tokyo, Apr. 26): "During the silent film era in Japan ... film screenings were accompanied by live narrators, called benshi ... [who] enlivened the cinema experience." Films include The Dull Sword (1917; animated); Jiraiya the Hero (1921; see fights at 3:48, 11:37 to see frog magic, and 14:09 for frog vs. snake); A Page of Madness (1926; one of "The 100 Best Horror Movies"; helpful screenplay [PDF] co-authored by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata); and The Golden Flower (1929; animated). Previously. See also Jess Nevins's 2020 Twitter thread on Japanese horror movies, 1898-1949.
posted by Wobbuffet (1 comment total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was lucky enough to see a Japanese silent film with a benshi, The Water Artist. That's a link to the full film with narration by Midori Sawato, who might have been the narrator at the showing I saw. She was amazing—she had such a command of different voices.

I understand that Polish dubbed movies do something similar, with a single "lector" reciting all the parts.
posted by adamrice at 6:00 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]


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