The Dancing Girl of Izu
About The Dancing Girl of Izu
On a holiday walk down the Izu Peninsula, Tokyo student Mizuhara falls in with travelling musicians led by Eikichi, who has already lost the family gold mine, sold cheap to Zenbei. In the town where they have an engagement, Eikichi’s sister Kaoru falls in love with Mizuhara. Egged on by Kubota, the mine’s old engineer, Eikichi asks Zenbei for what he thinks is his share. Zenbei will pay only if Eikichi sells Kaoru to him. Mizuhara, whose classmate Ryūichi is Zenbei’s son, calls the offer insolent. Zenbei, a friend of the siblings’ dead father, says he wants Kaoru off the road. He has quietly opened a bank account in her name and hopes she will marry Ryūichi. Mizuhara and Kaoru part in tears. At the boat back to Tokyo he tells her to look for a settled life as Ryūichi’s wife.
Cast & crew
More about The Dancing Girl of Izu
Heinosuke Gosho directed Akira Fushimi’s script from Yasunari Kawabata’s 1926 story. Jōji Ohara photographed. Shochiku released the silent film, with Japanese intertitles, on 2 February 1933. Den Obinata is Mizuhara. Kinuyo Tanaka is Kaoru. Tokuji Kobayashi is Eikichi. The English-language filmography gives 124 minutes; another listing says 94.
Themes
Making
Gosho’s version keeps Kawabata’s walk and the tearful boat, then builds a gold-mine bargain the story did not have. Zenbei is both the buyer of the mine and the father of Mizuhara’s classmate.
Reviews
Arthur Nolletti, Gosho’s biographer, treats this as the strongest of the many films from Kawabata’s story and as a junbungaku picture, using a “serious” literary source rather than a popular one.
Look
Jōji Ohara shot the peninsula trip, the musicians’ engagement, and the parting at the boat.
Music
Silent, with Japanese intertitles.
Preservation
A silent Shochiku print survives. Published runtimes differ: 124 minutes and 94 minutes.
Notes
- The Japanese title on the film is Koi no hana saku Izu no odoriko, “The Blooming Love of a Dancing Girl of Izu.”
- Eiko Takamatsu plays Otatsu, Eikichi’s mother. Kinuko Wakamizu is his wife Chiyoko. Jun Arai is Zenbei. Ryōichi Takeuchi is Ryūichi. Reikichi Kawamura is Kubota.
- Chōko Iida and Kikuko Hanaoka appear as geisha. Takeshi Sakamoto is Hattori.
- Fushimi and Gosho added the mine, the bank account, and the offer of Ryūichi. Kawabata’s story is the meeting and the parting.
- Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano writes that the added plot softens the class gap and pictures a countryside not yet modernized.
Scenes
- Mizuhara joins Eikichi’s troupe on the peninsula.
- Zenbei tells Eikichi the money comes only if Kaoru is sold to him.
- The secret bank account and the hope that she will marry Ryūichi come out.
- At the gangway Mizuhara tells her to seek that marriage, and they part crying.
Influenced by
- The Dancing Girl of Izu (Yasunari Kawabata, 1926)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Dancing Girl of Izu (1933) by Gosho Heinosuke.webm)
