An Actor's Revenge

An Actor's Revenge (雪之丞変化, 1963) — watch online on iFILM. Director Kon Ichikawa built this film around a milestone: the 300th screen credit of Kazuo Hasegawa, who plays two entirely different men in the same picture.

In old Edo, kabuki onnagata Yukinojō has spent years manoeuvring into position near the three merchants who drove his parents to their deaths. He's not in a hurry — the plan is ruin first, then resolution. Hasegawa also plays Yamitarō, a street thief whose own score against the same men runs on a separate track. Ayako Wakao plays a noblewoman pulled into the centre of it.

Ichikawa makes the theatricality visible: Eastmancolor bold enough to read as stage lighting, staging that quotes kabuki composition, edits that land like act breaks. A film that knows it's a performance, and uses that knowledge. Watch An Actor's Revenge (1963) online on iFILM.