Rakugo Nagaya wa Hana Zakari Pamphlet: Promo Images and a Lot of Text

My most recent Buyee order just came in, so I can now share high-quality scans of this pamphlet, which features some of the only images from the film that I'm aware of. Pictures first:

The "hype text" on the middle two pages reads (next to the photo of Mokuichi and the women): "Did it fall from the sky? Did it rise from the ground? [this is an idiom meaning roughly "something incredible has cropped up that has never been seen before"] A gale of laughter erupts in the tenement house! Absolutely the best, most outrageous and extravagant comedy! Laugh out loud! Everyone will laugh!" (next to the photo of Enoken and Asami Kuji) "A fire-lover, elopement, rubberneckers, Enoken giving it his all, and the greatest comedians of Japanese cinema appear in this unprecedented, extravagant comedic masterpiece!" Yowza.

Here are clearer images of the promo photos by themselves for your delectation - again, this movie is almost entirely lost, we have maybe a dozen pictures from it.

Ehehehehehe.

I'll put the synopsis under a jump cut, since it's going to run pretty long, but I want to keep one thing up here in the main post: the back of the pamphlet has a section titled kaisetsu (explanation/commentary), which is a short introduction to sell you on the film. Synopses are easy enough to find (relatively speaking), but this is unique to this pamphlet. It reads:

Kenichi Enomoto, who reigned as the king of comedy in both film and theater and was extremely popular, fell ill with a strange, rare unknown disease, and suffered a painful illness for about a year, but he has recently made a full recovery and this is his first appearance in a film. The film is written by Tsuruo Ando and the screenplay is by the sharp Toshiro Ide, who put together [several rakugo stories]. To celebrate Enoken's full recovery, this is a luxurious blockbuster that features all the comedic heroes of the Japanese film and theater world, and the director Nobuo Aoyagi has made full use of his unprecedentedly large cast in all its forms.

The story is a compilation of the rakugo stories "Nedoko", "Kaji musuko", "Dekikogoro", "Umaya kaji", "Niramugaeshi", "Shingan", and "Tarachine", all compiled into one story. The cast includes a gorgeous and diverse variety of actors such as Kenichi Enomoto, Roppa Furukawa, Kingoro Yanagiya, Shizuko Kasagi, Tony Tani, Aiko Mimasu, Akihiko Hirata, Mayuri Mokusho, Hisaya Morishige, Yuriko Hamada, Yunosuke Ito, Atsushi Watanabe, Koreyoshi Nakamura, Kanta Kisaragi, Norihei Miki, and Asami Kuji. It was produced by Ichiro Sato and Yoshie Kishii, who worked on "Botchan" and "Onna gokoro wa hitosuji ni", and this is Toho's first luxurious comedy masterpiece of the year.

Soemon Iseya's tenements will never be rented out to any tenant who does not listen to Soemon's gidayu.

Today, as usual, the carpenter Hachigoro and the rest of the shopkeepers gather at his house to listen to his poorly-written performance. When the rakugo storyteller Kidosuke can no longer bear it and tries to run away, he is caught by Nagamatsu, the shop boy on guard duty. Just then, the fire bell sounds. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hachigoro and the others try to use the fire as an excuse to escape, but they're stopped by Soemon and forced to sit back down. Meanwhile, Sonosuke, Soemon's son who loves watching fires more than anything, preoccupies Nagamatsu with a manju and goes out to watch the fire with Ohana, a neighboring girl who also loves fire.

Later that night, all the residents of the tenement houses return home, relieved to have been freed from Soemon's gidayu, but when Hachigoro goes back to his home, he finds a thief's footprints. Hachigoro, who is three months behind on rent, goes to his landlord Soemon's house to tell him that everything has been stolen. While the thief, for whom this was his first job, is listening from under his eaves, Hachigoro reports that the thief stole a silk futon, a black habutae, and a haori. The thief jumps out from under the eaves, grabs Hachigoro by the collar, and starts a fight.

Meanwhile, Sonosuke and Ohana return from watching the fire near midnight and are locked out of their house. Sonosuke says he is going to his uncle Sojuro's house and Ohana asks him to take her along. Sonosuke, who hates women by nature, says this is absolutely not okay, but Ohana follows him, so he has no choice but to let her come along. Sojuro, being who he is, is convinced that Sonosuke has brought Ohana home, so he takes the two of them upstairs but lays out only one futon. Outside, there is a fierce thunderstorm. Sojuro holds his wife Oishi in his arms, and as he recalls the state of the two youngsters upstairs, he tells Oishi that they remind him of the two of them.

The women's hairdresser, Omiyo, left her husband Kinjiro to play around while she worked, but sometimes they would have biolent arguments, and each time she would bring a complaint to Soemon, who acted as matchmaker. Soemon, who could no longer bear it, decided to have Omiyo test her husband's love for her by breaking his most precious possession and seeing if he asked after her welfare before anything else. Soemon told Omiyo that this meant her husband loved her, so she immediately carried out the experiment, and as expected, Kinjiro was worried, which made her very happy. However, Kinjiro was worried that if his wife injured her hands, she would no longer be able to work.

With this all happening, as the New Year approached, everyone in the tenement house had a hard time making excuses for not paying their debts, and the fortune teller Ukon was particularly troubled. Just then, Densuke, a drifter who professionally made excuses for debts, passed by. Ukon handed him his precious money and asked him to help, but he didn't do a thing. Densuke just glared at the rice merchant, liquor merchant, and charcoal merchant [as they came to collect their debts] and refused them. Ukon was impressed, and Densuke said, laughing weakly, "I can make excuses for other people's debts, but when it comes to my own debts, I can't do anything." Ukon offered to take on Densuke's excuse business this time. Ukon worked up a sweat and gave a great performance, refusing all of the debts, and Densuke returned the money that Ukon had given him earlier as a fee. As they listened to the bells tolling on New Year's Eve, they looked at each other and felt relieved.

It was a day in the new year. Mokuichi, a masseuse in the tenement houses, was a very handsome man. His wife, Osato, was gentle and cared for him, but she was not very beautiful. However, Mokuichi thought she was, and always prayed to Yakushi-sama [a god of medicine]. One day, Mokuichi's sight was miraculously restored. Now that he could see, Mokuichi enjoyed everything he saw and heard. When Mokuichi met Koharu, a geisha, [while he was with] Echigoya, he wished that his wife was as beautiful as Koharu, but Echigoya laughed at him and he was completely defeated. Just as he was about to break up with Osato to be with Koharu, Osato came storming in. As this was happening, Mokuichi woke up from his dream. He smiled sadly, thinking he could only see clearly while he was asleep.

Meanwhile, the caring Soemon arranges to find a bride for Hachigoro. She is a difficult bride, a maid working at the residence of a certain lord of the Saru household, and has no ability to speak commoners' language. When the hasty Hachigoro is alone with her after their wedding ceremony, he has yet to even ask her name. He hurriedly asks her name, she [repeats his question back in much more formal language], and Hachigoro has no idea what she's saying. When Hachigoro wakes up in the morning, she starts addressing him as "my lord", which makes him nervous. One night, the half-bell rings, and he rushes out, thinking it is a fire, which he loves to watch. His bride starts crying, saying, "my lord, if you are injured, how I will lament", but he rushes out. The fire approaches Soemon's house.

When Hachigoro went to the scene of the fire, he saw Sonosuke, dressed as a fireman, standing on the roof looking dashing [TL note: swear to god this is what it says] and Ohana watching him with confidence. As expected of stubborn people, Soemon and his wife Osue decided to forgive the young couple, and in their hearts they were grateful for that night's fire. After the fire was over, the stars were beautiful in the quiet late-night town sky, and they continued to say it, as if tey were wishing happiness for all the people living in the tenement houses.

As a total aside, since we're beyond the jump cut and I can say whatever I want now, I just want to address something that kept sticking out to me while I was translating the script that might not notice if you're unfamiliar with Japanese cinema of this era. Mokuichi the anma, who is repeatedly referred to as extremely handsome and is characterized as kind of a womanizer as soon as he realizes his wife isn't all that, is played by Hisaya Morishige. For most Japanese filmgoers, Morishige is probably most famous for his recurring role in the Shachō series, where he looks like this:

So while I'm translating these scenes where multiple women flirt with Morishige's character and call him handsome to his face, I'm thinking "my god, these girls are rizzing up Shachō." And it's not just me who thinks this is odd. The hot anma survives into the edited re-release version of the film and reviewers of that version have brought up how strange it is to have Hisaya Morishige cast as a heartthrob.

Anyway, I just thought that was funny.