On the Set of “A Duel Tale”

Text: Kasuga Taichi

“I previously did an NHK period drama called Seizaemon Zanji Tsuroku, based on a Fujisawa Shuhei novel. I played a rather indifferent, retired samurai, and people seemed to like it very much. I feel like A Duel Tale is kind of a continuation on that theme, and reading the original work, it’s quite interesting indeed. It again depicts a rather negative set of circumstances.

There are disparities among samurai, and the rank of the samurai I’m playing is that of “heyazumi,” meaning that he’s now retired and living a quiet life at home where his family consider him a nuisance. It’s a very sad story, different from the typical kind of sword fighting period drama I’ve done in the past. I feel like it was a project fitting for my age.” —Nakadai

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Present-Day Nakadai Tatsuya

Nakadai Tatsuya, currently in his eighties, continues earnestly to appear in both theater and film productions as an active duty actor. In both arenas, he has always kept trying, through trial and error, to show audiences a “new side of Nakadai Tatsuya.”

Feeling it imperative to detail Nakadai’s activities in recent years, this segment of the book was compiled from interviews conducted both before and after appearances in some of his major recent works.

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Kobayashi Masaki and
The Fall of Japanese Film
“Samurai Rebellion,” “Kwaidan,” “Dunhuang”

It was director Kobayashi Masaki who selected Nakadai Tatsuya to play the leading role in the six-part The Human Condition, elevating him to immediate stardom. Having worked with numerous master directors throughout his career, Nakadai describes especially his partnership with Kobayashi as the “best match” for him. But while Kobayashi made full use of his mastery in the 1960s, there was a sudden decline in the number of works he produced in the 70s. He then made a mere two films in the 80s, and finally zero in the 90s. You could say it was as if this one director personified the shift from Japanese film’s golden age to its decline.

In this final chapter, Nakadai talks about changes in the world of Japanese cinema throughout director Kobayashi Masaki’s life as it was heading towards its fall.

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Kurosawa Akira and Katsu Shintaro
“Kagemusha” & “Ran”

Released in 1980, director Kurosawa Akira’s film Kagemusha won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Previously considered to have been suffering from a slump, the film marked a definite return for the “Master.” By the same token, however, the movie also became known for the surrounding scandal of Katsu Shintaro stepping down from the leading role he was originally supposed to be playing. Nakadai—having close relationships with both Kurosawa and Katsu—found himself in a difficult position having to suddenly “stand in” for Katsu.

In this chapter, Nakadai talks about his friendship with Katsu, and his relationship with Kurosawa since Kagemusha.

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Gosha Hideo and the Passion of Great Actors
“Goyokin,” “Hitokiri,” “Hunter in the Dark,” “Onimasa”

While today there are numerous film directors who got their start in TV, when television had first just emerged (TV broadcasts began in 1953), people thought little of it in the 50s and 60s—the Golden Age of Japanese Film. Film directors like that used to be rare, but the man who first paved the way through those uncharted roads was Fuji TV’s Gosha Hideo. He would later go on to use Nakadai in many of his films in leading roles. For Nakadai and Gosha both, they each hold an essential position in their respective filmographies.

In this chapter, we asked Nakadai about his memories with Gosha Hideo.

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