April 23rd, Meiji-za, Tokyo
Hakana, evening performance
So here's my somewhat too long report on Wednesday. Most of it was written on / from the perspective of Thursday but I didn't have time to finish it properly. This will be about what happened on that day and about my feelings, impressions and opinions. If you are looking for a complete script of the entire play, stop reading now and save yourself some time. If you expect a super long rant about the greatness of Miki you're looking at the wrong text as well.
Also, please excuse the slightly messed up structure of the text. (^_^);;
After I got home I read the summary of the story that had been posted before. It's quite good so I'll try not to mention the story too much in order not to spoil it for people who want to go or who hope for a DVD.
I asked the theater staff about the possibility but they declined from commenting / pretended to have no information.
I'll also use the terms from the summary so it'll be easier to follow (for those who got spoiled already. at least).
This was my first visit to a theater in many years and the first one while in Japan (not counting the AKB48 Theater). I avoided reading about this and didn't watch any of the clips that were offered for download. I wanted to watch it completely unbiased and uninformed.
Since I had no idea who they would react, I didn't even bother to bring my camera. There'll be a few pictures below the text but I had to take them with my cellphone, without a flash, just in case...
In order to make sure everything works out fine, I went to the theater on Sunday to buy a ticket and to check out the way from the train station and the surrounding area. Meiji-za is less than 50 meters away from Hamacho station on the Toei Shinjuku line, so if you want to go, I suggest to use this.
I originally wanted to sit on the second floor but it was sold out. So I opted for the third floor and spent part of the money I saved for some good binoculars.
The day to see it was finally here, I had no more work for the day and the weather was great.
Since I had lots of time, I decided to go to Akihabara first and look around a bit. One store had a huge display set up for Okitegami. I should've waited but I bought one right away. After that I made sure to get to the theater in time. I arrived there at around 17:45, 45 minutes before the start and 15 minutes before they would let people into the hall.
As the name implies, the theater was founded during the Meiji era of japanese history (1868-1912) but when they renewed it in 1993, it was moved into an unspectacular high rise. It shares the building with a bank and some offices. On the ground floor (1st floor in Japan) there's only the entrance lobby and the ticket office (and probably lots of stuff below the stage).
On the second, third and fourth floor, lots of little shops were set up, mostly for japanese style snacks / crackers. In one corner, Okitegami was playing. I should've known they'd sell it there. Not only did they sell the CD but a tape version as well. This was quite a surprise, seeing how it always feels like (older) japanese people are more interested in new technology than their counterparts in other countries. Just the other day I saw an elderly lady on the train who almost missed her station because she was playing Mario Kart on her DS.
So I couldn't resist and asked about the tapes. The lady told me that it's still common for songs like this ( = the enka type) to be produced as tapes even tho they are not actually popular anymore. Also, if I bought the CD, I would get a poster. Damn.
Next was one of several stands selling merchandise for the play. I bought the sets that can be found in her pictures thread and a handkerchief (because it's cheap, practical and easy to put away in a full backpack
). Since there was still some time until they would let us in, walked around and looked at the rest, slowly moving closer to the door for my seat.
On the fouth floor (entrance to the third floor seats) they sold clothes. Grandma would like them. Seriously, who goes to a theater and buys clothes?
Just when I finished my round, a chime was played and the doors opened.
My seat, considering it was third floor, was actually quite good. The first picture was taken from there (but while I was standing).
Being a theater for traditional japanese plays, it of course had a so called hanamichi (the catwalk, if you will, that can be seen on the second picture). It has some importance in kabuki but wasn't used much in Hakana. Still, it's good to have a seat from wich you can see a good portion of it. Also, some very minor parts took place on the first floor where the audience is.
Concerning the entire play, the overall best seat would probably be right side or front row right on the second floor - if you bring binoculars.
The first thing I noticed was, unfortunatly, that the front rows that face the stage, people over 180cm+ will most likely have some trouble sitting comfortably. Me being 190cm+, I constantly hit the wall in front of me with my knees.
This does hurt the experience quite a bit (and the knees too).
Luckily there were no people in the row behind me, so I could leave my backpack there. They have coinlockers in the theater but these are only good if you want to deposit a can of soda and a book...
I know that the second floor was sold out because, as mentioned earlier, I didn't get a ticket anymore. On the first floor (second of the building), there were a couple of free seats in the middle. Third floor, the cheapest, was almost empty. One would think, with about 35 million people living in Greater Tokyo, it would be easy for them to sell out every night...
While the lights were still on, I took some pictures. The woman next to me looked sort of annoyed at first but then took out her own phone and happily snapped away.
Five minutes before the curtain would rise, a quite loud, very unpleasant tone was played to tell everybody to get seated. After that, theater staff came to every section and asked everyone to be considerate and not to bother others by talking or eating, to switch off the mobile phone (or set it to silent mode) and, of course, not to record the play in any way. A similar message was then played over the loudspeakers. I wish they had something like that in the cinema back in my hometown. A few times I got close to murder people...
Slowly the lights went out and the curtain rose. The stage was simplistic and the lights were dark green and blue. It felt a little bit like underwater.
A little bell rung several times, piano music started.
I'll just give my opinion on the play now. As I said, I don't want to spoil the story and even if I were, it's way too long for my to type out entirely.
The first thing I noticed was the little box-shaped hole, about 2-3 meters above ground on the right side of the stage that had a recitator and shamisen player in it (for more, lookup Gidayu). This worried me a bit because I knew this from bunraku (japanese puppet plays) and remember how much trouble I had understanding this particular type of narration / style of speaking (almost singing).
I must also admit at this point that I don't like the shamisen too much. Luckily, the use of both was only limited during the play.
Still, it should be mentioned that Hakana is a lot like typical traditional japanese plays (well it is, actually, but it was somewhat modified to make it more accessible for a broader audience. lookup Jidaigeki. This one is called a NEO Jidaigeki on the poster) and that you probably will be disappointed if you expect a musical. There is only few singing and since they all wear microphones and everything also comes from the speakers it's hard to tell whether it's live or not. One song that Miki sings sounds familiar. It's probably from a western opera but I fail to identify it.
The story is easy to follow if you know some Japanese or if you are familiar with other stories of this type. What I mentioned in my last post is quite an issue. There's several scenes during the intermissions that included making jokes about current people or that were done to remind people who the actor is. HG doing his fooo! is a prime example. I seriously dislike this about japanese entertainment in general. It's the same for dorama. Why the hell must some comedian bring his/her routine into a play/series/movie/whatever where he/she is playing a role and is a totally different person? How can I respect HG as an actor if he, in a period play, as a demon, suddenly goes all fooooo and reminds everyone of this embarassing "gay" costume he used to wear?
The acting in Hakana was quite solid actually, at least as far as I can judge it with my limited understanding of Japanese. HG did a good job. Why can't he make a name for himself as Sumitani Masaki? Also, making the audience laugh is good, but it has to fit in. And here, it didn't, really....
When Miki finally appeared (I think it's not a secret that I only went because of her) after about 20 minutes, it was really strange seeing her. This was no concert or Haromoni. And it wasn't on some screen. This was live. But it was completely different from everything I've seen her do before. It took a moment to sink in. She was there, just a few meters away. This was unlike the last time I saw a H!P member live. Last time was G-Emotion II and even tho I was excited, I knew what to expect - a concert. But Miki had just returned after her break and I was eager to see what she was capable of in a role like this one.
Being there, it was easy to see that she was not naked in her first scene. I'm totally biased here but I'd say her acting was really good. Hakana changed quite a bit and Miki did a good job conveying it. Even tho she played the title role, I would have wished for her to be on stage much longer, to show off her acting skills. And as the play progressed, I still hoped she would have a song or two, even tho I knew it was probably not going to happen. Nonetheless, watching her was really refreshing. Especially her acting rough (Hakana being influenced by Suzujiro's way of talking and moving) was very amusing. Later in the play, it was interesting to see her doing some basic fan dancing and wearing a gorgeous kimono.
The dice princess is played by a man because it's actually a puppet as it is found in bunraku and the guy is the player. I don't know him but he must be famous since he's third on the poster and he's playing without a mask. Usually in bunraku, a puppet of this size is played be at least two people. Normal would be three. The main actor operates the head and right arm and also dictates movement. The first aid operates the left arm and helps with props / accessories. If the puppet has legs or feet, they are operated by a third aid. And normally, all the players are dressed in black, including full head covers. Only very famous players are allowed / asked to act without the head cover.
In Hakana, the puppet is about the size of a normal (japanese) person and is mostly operated by the main guy, who wore an interesting silver and black suit, and one aid, dressed completely black. In some scenes, where there's not so much movement of the body required, the main guy would carry it alone. In a way, he was the secret star of the play.
The play didn't use to many props and the stage wasn't really changed at all for most of the time. People, entirely dressed in black, let's just call them stage ninja, were used a lot and they did a great job. I had a somewhat hard time following some dialogs but when I read the summary afterwards I was pleased that I got the gist of it right. Time seemed to fly by and all of a sudden the first part was over. I'd say this is a good sign. It shows that I really enjoyed it even tho there was this language barrier.
The lights went on and next to the stage, a 30 minute countdown started. I was happy to be able to move a bit and decided to take some more pictures. On the first floor, you could see many people unboxing their sushi and sandwiches. This was surprising to see. I know places that would punish you for even bringing food.
I went back to the shop area to take some pictures of the posters hanging in the windows. Again, no flash. A guy made an unexpected turn and I bumped into him, dropping my phone. But the carpet there is great. Very thick and soft. The lines for onigiri and bentou were quite long so I just got myself a nice strawberry crepe. While eating, I had a chance to browse thru a sample copy of the program. It had some nice shots but was totally not worth the 2000 Yen. On my way to the toilet I found the little sign with the schedule on it. It would go on for another 65 minutes and it would take some more time to get out of the building while everyone else had the same idea. I knew I would get home late, most likely standing in a crowded train the entire time, surrounded by tired salarymen and OLs, finally on the way home after a long day.
The start of the second part was announced by the same annoying sound they used before and one can only wonder why they use it. There's speakers everywhere. Just make a spoken announcement or play some nice music.... The second part seemed to be more fast paced and overall gave the impression that everything until now was only an introduction of some sort (even tho this is not entirely true). It's hard to comment on this without touching the story but there were some really interesting scenes that made good use of the props, lighting and sound effects and even the stage itself. Going by the reactions of the people around me, it's easy to say that the actors managed to move everybody. This was also reflected by several minutes of applause after the final curtain. When the lights went back on, you could see that some peoples emptions were really running high.
On the way out I somehow ended up being surrounded by a group of elderly ladys who apparently liked it very much. Near the exit, the people from the record store had set up a table with the remaing CDs/tapes, trying to get some last second sales. One from my group, went over and got herself a copy, saying something along the lines of "it's really interesting for someone her age to sing a song like this".
On the way home I was lucky to have a seat for most of my 90 minute train ride and had plenty of time to think about everything again. It turned out to be different from what I had expected but still a memorable experience.
The end.
The last one is just the ceiling of the main hall.
Topic: The Fujimoto Miki Thread (藤本美貴) (Read 318584 times)