The Beauty and the Dragon Film Review

This is an adaptation of a Kabuki folk-tale (Narukami) that was first performed in the late 1600s, went through various changes and is still performed today. We get a small taste of the real thing at the end and it makes you want to be sitting in a small kabuki theater watching the whole thing. This black and white film version from director Kozaburo Yoshimura adjusts it to some degree to accentuate the underlying feminist point of view and adds some court intrigue. It is quite wonderful and surprisingly engrossing for a fairly stagey rendition that is primarily shot on interior sets. It slowly and methodically builds up steam and the ending is magical. Great period detail and costumes with a traditional score from Akira Ifukube.

Japan is in the midst of a great drought - 100 days without rain - and the peasants are getting restless. The Court in Kyoto is comprised of inept men - either unable to make decisions, out for their own advantage, uncaring about the peasants or simply baffled by what to do. The High Buddhist Priest Narukami has declared that there is no rain because he has confined the Dragon God of the 3000 Worlds. He won't set the dragon free till the court fulfils their promised temple for him. They are 20-years late. This reward is because the heir was a female in the womb and his prayers changed it to a male.

Knowing that they can't build the temple in time, the Regent invites the top scholar in the country for his advice. After much noodling, he announces that the only thing that can break Narukami's spell is the reading of a scroll - but no one has ever been able to do so. Thus enters the female angle in the film. The Court asks Princess Taema (Nobuko Otowa) the granddaughter of the writer if she can read it and save Japan. She is one smart cookie and understands the male species. She tells the court that she needs one day to think about it and she and her elderly maid put their heads together and come up with a plan.

A plan to free the dragon, bring the rains, be rid of a sleazy suitor who has a spider web shirt and marry the man (Chiyonosuke Azuma) she loves who has been promised to another. It plays out beautifully - she has no clue how to read the scroll but she knows how to read men. With her womanly wiles, wit and beauty, she goes with her two maids to face the arrogant Narukami (Chojuro Kawarasaki) in his mountain retreat where the dragon is imprisoned and see if she can break through his righteous Buddhist vows of never being seduced by a woman, physically or spiritually. She puts on quite the performance of a maiden in distress and shockingly lifts the hem of her skirt to display her ankle. It is brilliant as she ropes him in.