Travelling Actors (Japanese: 旅役者, romanized: Tabi yakusha) is a 1940 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a short story by Mushū Ui.[1][2][3]
| Travelling Actors | |
|---|---|
| Japanese | 旅役者 |
| Directed by | Mikio Naruse |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by | Himuro Teppei |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Seiichi Kizuka |
| Music by | Fumio Hayasaki |
Production company | Toho |
| Distributed by | Toho |
Release date |
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Running time | 71 minutes[1][2] |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
A kabuki theatre troupe from Tokyo, led by the "famous" Kikugoro, arrives at a rural village for a series of performances. Jin, the town's barber, who was talked into co-sponsoring the event, realises that the "star" is only an actor who uses the famous family name as a publicity stunt. While drunk and angrily searching for his business partner Wakasaya, Jin accidentally destroys the head of the horse costume of actors Hyoroku and Senpei. When Hyoroku rejects to perform in the sloppily repaired costume, Kikugoro decides to use a real horse for the play instead and makes Hyoroku the stable boy. Hyoroku, drunk and enraged about the degradation, puts on the horse costume with Senpei and chases the real horse away.
In later years, director Mikio Naruse cited Travelling Actors, despite interventions from the censors during production, as one of his personal favourites.[4] Naruse biographer Catherine Russell saw Travelling Actors, alongside Hideko the Bus Conductor and This Happy Life, as part of a series of films with an "interesting twist on national policy principles in that they point to a certain sacred character of everyday life […] and characters gaining some kind of insight in [its] value".[5]