East Asian Melodrama

  East Asian Melodrama Paper details: Discuss the film "An Actor‘s Revenge" by Kon Ichikawa and it‘s relationship to melodrama. You might consider such questions as: In what ways can this film be considered a melodrama? How does it exemplify melodrama in plot. performance. and mise-en-scene? In what ways does it depart from traditional definitions of the genre? Use at least 4 sources. I have provided two of the sources below: Keiko I. McDonald, “Kabuki Stage and An Actor's Revenge," in Japanese Classical Theater in Films (Rutherford. NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 1994). Read pp. 127-128 (introduction to essay) and from bottom of 133 to 141 (“Melodrama as avant- garde" and “Gender Inderminacy") in Scott Nygren. “Inscribing the Subject: The Melodramatization of Gender in An Actor's Revenge," in Wimal Dissanayake, ed.. Melodrama and Asian Cinema. Read the excerpts from Nygren's essay quickly. Do not worry too much if some of the words and concepts are difficult. Focus on what the writer says about how shimpa (a form ofJapanese theater that arose during the Meiji era). kabuki. and chambara (sword-fight film) relate to melodrama and to social protest.