[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Ichiro Kataoka, one of Japan’s
foremost benshi (or silent film narrators), will perform in person at
the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque on Friday, November 16,
at 7:30 pm. Kataoka will narrate the 1935 Japanese silent film AN INN
AT TOKYO directed by Yasujiro Ozu (TOKYO STORY).
In Japan silent films were accompanied
not only by music, but also by a benshi. Standing next to the screen,
the benshi provided a running commentary on the movie while relaying
the film’s story in a theatrical manner (playing multiple roles
with a variety of voices). Some benshi were so popular that they were
more of a draw than the movie itself! Though benshi disappeared with
the coming of sound, certain individuals kept the tradition alive.
Ichiro Kataoka is one of Japan’s foremost practitioners of this
vanished art. He was the star pupil of master benshi Midori Sawato
(who performed at The Cleveland Museum of Art in 1989) and is also a
film and television performer, a voice actor for video games, and a
historian. AN INN AT TOKYO, the movie he will narrate, is a moving
drama about the relationship between an unemployed father and an
equally destitute single mother.
