The Life of Chikuzan

Masahiro Shinoda is one of Japan's heavyweight film directors - I've recommended his films in this blog before. I recently enjoyed his film Chikuzan, about Chikuzan Takahashi, one of Japan's most renowned folk musicians. Chikuzan was blind from the age of two, and the film documents with pathos and humor his hardscrabble existence as a traveling musician. It features many strong female characters, and plenty of louche males - the women in Chikuzan's life are shown ultimately to be his salvation. There's plenty of gorgeous cinematography and fascinating music, and lovers of Asian traditional music or art-house cinema will not be disappointed.



Asmik's Japanese Region 2 DVD has an excellent visual presentation of the film, as is typical of Japanese DVDs. English sub-titles are available. Note that Chikuzan is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, which means you may need to adjust a widescreen television (by selecting size 4:3) in order to view it correctly at home. The DVD is available from HMV Japan.