{ "id": "epw874zc17", "slug": "an-actors-revenge", "title": "An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "label": "Released 1960 to 1965", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化, Yukinojo henge) is Kon Ichikawa's 1963 Daiei color melodrama in which kabuki onnagata Yukinojo, played by Kazuo Hasegawa in a dual role marking his 300th film, avenges his parents; it remakes Kinugasa's 1935 version.", "snippet": "An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化, Yukinojo henge) is Kon Ichikawa's 1963 Daiei color melodrama in which kabuki onnagata Yukinojo, played by Kazuo Hasegawa in a dual role marking his 300th film, avenges his parents; it remakes Kinugasa's 1935 version.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "markdown": "# An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化)\n\n**An Actor's Revenge** (雪之丞変化, *Yukinojō henge*; also released as *Revenge of a Kabuki Actor*) is a 1963 Japanese period melodrama directed by [Kon Ichikawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/kon-ichikawa), in which a kabuki female impersonator avenges his parents, who were driven to ruin and suicide by three corrupt men.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [2](https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/film/203/n-a) Produced by Daiei and released in Japan on January 13, 1963, it stars Kazuo Hasegawa in a dual role and was made to mark his 300th screen appearance.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [3](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-an-actors-revenge-1963-online) The film is a remake of a 1935 version directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, in which Hasegawa had also starred.[4](https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/PMAJLS/article/download/2408/1898/5891)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 雪之丞変化 (*Yukinojō henge*); English titles include *An Actor's Revenge* and *Revenge of a Kabuki Actor*[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) |\n| Director / studio | Kon Ichikawa; Daiei (Kyoto), released January 13, 1963[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [5](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=20963) |\n| Runtime / format | 113 minutes (some catalogs list 114), color, Daiei Scope 2.35:1[5](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=20963) • [6](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/140689) |\n| Source | Newspaper serial by Otokichi Mikami, serialized in the *Asahi Shimbun* in 1935; screenplay by Natto Wada after an adaptation by Daisuke Ito and Teinosuke Kinugasa[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [7](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA25969861) |\n| Star role | Kazuo Hasegawa as the onnagata Yukinojo and the thief Yamitaro, in his 300th film[3](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-an-actors-revenge-1963-online) |\n| Principal cast | Fujiko Yamamoto (O-Hatsu), Ayako Wakao (Namiji), Raizo Ichikawa, Shintaro Katsu, Eiji Funakoshi[8](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/actors_revenge/) |\n| Predecessor | 1935 Shochiku version directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, 97 minutes, with Hasegawa in three roles[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01754/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nYukinojo Nakamura is a celebrated onnagata, a male kabuki actor who specializes in female roles, performing with an Osaka troupe. While on stage he recognizes in the audience three men responsible for his parents' deaths: Dobe Sansai, formerly the Nagasaki magistrate who framed his father on a false charge, and the merchants Hiromiya and Kawagachiya.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [10](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/an-actors-revenge/1502767) His true purpose in life is revenge, a purpose almost no one around him knows.[11](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/002370)\n\nTo approach Dobe Sansai, Yukinojo exploits the love of Namiji, Sansai's daughter, who has fallen ill with infatuation after seeing him perform.[11](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/002370) He then works covertly to turn his remaining enemies against each other: during an Edo famine he goads Hiromiya into dumping rice on the market, ruining the hoarding Kawagachiya, who is strangled by Hiromiya in the aftermath; Hiromiya in turn is stabbed by the abducted Namiji and dies.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) In the final confrontation Sansai poisons himself, and Yukinojo, having seen all three enemies destroyed, performs his last stage appearance with a trace of loneliness on his face.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/)\n\nA parallel comic thread follows Yamitaro, a chivalrous thief who rescues Yukinojo from an assassin early in the film and befriends him.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [12](https://www.timeout.com/movies/an-actors-revenge) Hasegawa plays both parts.[3](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-an-actors-revenge-1963-online)\n\n## Production and origins\n\nThe source is a newspaper serial by Otokichi Mikami (1891–1944), serialized in the *Asahi Shimbun* in 1935.[1](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/) • [13](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E%20100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/10/20/actors-revenge/) Teinosuke Kinugasa, who had begun his own career as a female impersonator on stage and in silent films, first adapted it in 1935 for Shochiku, with Hasegawa, then starring under the name Lin Choron (林長二郎), playing Yukinojo, Yukinojo's mother, and the thief Yamitaro.[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01754/) • [13](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E%20100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/10/20/actors-revenge/) That version, released June 27, 1935, ran 97 minutes and, according to film scholar James Coates, had been the biggest box office hit in the history of Japanese cinema that year.[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01754/) • [14](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/160442/8/Coates_Creativity_at_the_Margins.pdf)\n\n**A punitive assignment.** After disappointing returns on a string of literary adaptations including *Conflagration* (1958) and *Odd Obsession* (1959), Daiei Studios instructed Ichikawa to remake Kinugasa's film, a project Donald Richie describes as given to him for commercial reasons, as a kind of punishment.[14](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/160442/8/Coates_Creativity_at_the_Margins.pdf) • [4](https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/PMAJLS/article/download/2408/1898/5891) Ichikawa's wife and frequent collaborator, the screenwriter Natto Wada, found the original scenario \"so bad it was good\" and kept almost everything, turning what one critic calls banal pulp shimpa melodrama into a highly stylized spectacle.[8](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/actors_revenge/) Shimpa was the Japanese melodramatic theater popular between 1890 and 1920, and the film's relation to that tradition has been a recurring subject of scholarship.[15](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/melodrama-and-asian-cinema/inscribing-the-subject-the-melodramatization-of-gender-in-an-actors-revenge/338B68913FB3E94EE67C981658F770F2)\n\nThe production was framed as a celebration of Hasegawa's 300th film appearance; the opening credits announce it as such.[3](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-an-actors-revenge-1963-online) • [4](https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/PMAJLS/article/download/2408/1898/5891) Hasegawa was 55 at the time, and the film plays knowingly on the convention of the young, beautiful onnagata being embodied by an aging star the audience knew from the 1935 original.[4](https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/PMAJLS/article/download/2408/1898/5891)\n\n## Style\n\nIchikawa treats the widescreen frame as a stage. He fills the 2.35:1 screen with bold colors, simple geometric abstractions, and de-centered compositions, leaving large areas in darkness and directing attention to action that may be unfolding outside the frame.[13](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E%20100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/10/20/actors-revenge/) The exterior night scenes were shot on empty sound stages with minimal set dressing, exaggerating unbalanced composition and the use of emptiness (mu) as a design element.[16](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/five-japanese-widescreen)\n\n**Kabuki devices in cinema.** The film exploits the formal similarity between the kabuki stage and the [CinemaScope](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinemascope) screen: sliding doors and panels of traditional Japanese houses begin and end scenes the way the kabuki curtain masks the stage, and a curtain sweeping across the stage echoes an earlier right-to-left screen wipe.[16](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/five-japanese-widescreen) • [17](https://globalfilmstudies.com/2008/09/03/yukinojo-henge-an-actors-revenge-japan-1963/) Overhead bird's-eye shots recall the ukiyo-e technique of fukinuki yatai, and one flashback shows the mother's suicide as a shadow performance beside the man who violated her.[16](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/five-japanese-widescreen) In one sequence Ichikawa borrows from animation, presenting Yukinojo's view of his enemies in the audience as a visual \"thought bubble\" with his thoughts on the soundtrack.[17](https://globalfilmstudies.com/2008/09/03/yukinojo-henge-an-actors-revenge-japan-1963/)\n\nThe soundtrack is deliberately anachronistic, mixing traditional Japanese music including shamisen, conventional orchestral scoring, and what one critic describes as lounge jazz signaling the 1960s.[17](https://globalfilmstudies.com/2008/09/03/yukinojo-henge-an-actors-revenge-japan-1963/) • [3](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-an-actors-revenge-1963-online) The score is credited to Yasushi Akutagawa, Tamekichi Mochizuki, and Masako Yagi.[8](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/actors_revenge/)\n\nCritics have read the film as a study of doubled identities, illusion and reality, and masculinity and femininity, with Scott Nygren, a film scholar then writing on melodrama and gender, describing it as a site of contesting discourses of power and gender identification that pivots between kabuki theatricality and Western cinematic realism.[15](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/melodrama-and-asian-cinema/inscribing-the-subject-the-melodramatization-of-gender-in-an-actors-revenge/338B68913FB3E94EE67C981658F770F2) • [18](https://mubi.com/en/films/an-actors-revenge/critics-reviews)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nDonald Richie called the result something of a masterpiece, though \"just what kind is difficult to say,\" and credited the film as the most concentrated example of Ichikawa and Wada's shared style and their single most successful collaboration.[19](https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/References/A%20Hundred%20Years%20of%20Japanese%20Film%20A%20Concise%20History%2C%20with%20a%20Selective%20Guide%20to%20DVDs%20and%20Videos%20by%20Donald%20Richie%20%28z-lib.org%29.pdf) • [20](https://lmsspada.kemdiktisaintek.go.id/pluginfile.php/479326/mod_folder/content/0/%28Images%20of%20Asia%29%20Donald%20Richie%20-%20Japanese%20Cinema_%20An%20Introduction-Oxford%20University%20Press%2C%20USA%20%281990%29.pdf?forcedownload=1) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 95% Tomatometer from 21 reviews.[21](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yukinojo_henge_1971)\n\nThe film has been repeatedly revived and restored. [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) issued a Blu-ray in 2018 from a new 4K digital restoration, with a 1999 Directors Guild of Japan interview with Ichikawa and a new interview with the critic and festival programmer Tony Rayns.[22](https://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-ray_reviews_80/an_actors_revenge_blu-ray.htm) The BFI released its own Blu-ray the same year, and the film remains in circulation on streaming platforms.[23](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2018/03/an-actors-revenge/) • [24](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/an-actors-revenge)\n\n## References\n\n1. [雪之丞変化（1963）, 映画.com](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/39902/)\n2. [An Actor's Revenge, Nippon Connection film database](https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/film/203/n-a)\n3. [Watch An Actor's Revenge online, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-an-actors-revenge-1963-online)\n4. [Stephanie DeBoer, \"Festival and Form in Ichikawa's Yukinojō henge,\" PMAJLS 4 (1998)](https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/PMAJLS/article/download/2408/1898/5891)\n5. [雪之丞変化(1963), KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=20963)\n6. [雪之丞変化 (1963), allcinema](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/140689)\n7. [An actor's revenge, CiNii Books catalog record](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA25969861)\n8. [An Actor's Revenge, Senses of Cinema CTEQ annotation (2003)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/actors_revenge/)\n9. [雪之丞変化, Shochiku film database (1935)](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01754/)\n10. [An Actor's Revenge, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/an-actors-revenge/1502767)\n11. [雪之丞変化, WOWOW Online](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/002370)\n12. [An Actor's Revenge, Time Out review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/an-actors-revenge)\n13. [An Actor's Revenge, BFI Southbank programme notes (2021)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E%20100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/10/20/actors-revenge/)\n14. [James Coates, \"Creativity at the margins in the 'Golden Age' of Japanese cinema (1945–1965)\"](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/160442/8/Coates_Creativity_at_the_Margins.pdf)\n15. [Scott Nygren, \"Inscribing the subject: The melodramatization of gender in An Actor's Revenge,\" in Melodrama and Asian Cinema, Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/melodrama-and-asian-cinema/inscribing-the-subject-the-melodramatization-of-gender-in-an-actors-revenge/338B68913FB3E94EE67C981658F770F2)\n16. [An Actor's Revenge (1963), BFI, \"5 masterpieces of Japanese widescreen\"](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/five-japanese-widescreen)\n17. [Yukinojo henge (An Actor's Revenge, Japan 1963), The Global Film Book Blog](https://globalfilmstudies.com/2008/09/03/yukinojo-henge-an-actors-revenge-japan-1963/)\n18. [An Actor's Revenge (1963) critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/an-actors-revenge/critics-reviews)\n19. [Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (entry for An Actor's Revenge)](https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/References/A%20Hundred%20Years%20of%20Japanese%20Film%20A%20Concise%20History%2C%20with%20a%20Selective%20Guide%20to%20DVDs%20and%20Videos%20by%20Donald%20Richie%20%28z-lib.org%29.pdf)\n20. [Donald Richie, Japanese Cinema: An Introduction (1990)](https://lmsspada.kemdiktisaintek.go.id/pluginfile.php/479326/mod_folder/content/0/%28Images%20of%20Asia%29%20Donald%20Richie%20-%20Japanese%20Cinema_%20An%20Introduction-Oxford%20University%20Press%2C%20USA%20%281990%29.pdf?forcedownload=1)\n21. [An Actor's Revenge, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yukinojo_henge_1971)\n22. [An Actor's Revenge Blu-ray review, DVD Beaver](https://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-ray_reviews_80/an_actors_revenge_blu-ray.htm)\n23. [An Actor's Revenge, BFI Blu-ray review, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2018/03/an-actors-revenge/)\n24. [An Actor's Revenge streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/an-actors-revenge)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化)](https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge](https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/an-actors-revenge. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "An Actor's Revenge is Kon Ichikawa's 1963 Daiei color melodrama in which kabuki onnagata Yukinojo, played by Kazuo Hasegawa in a dual role marking his 300th film, avenges his parents; it remakes Kinugasa's 1935 version." }