Episode 297: KEN (1964)

Trylove

Kokubu (Raizô Ichikawa), captain of his university's kendo team, is a mystery to those who know him: An ascetic dedicated to a point of obsession with the simplicity and beauty of the sword arts. Kagawa (Yūsuke Kawazu), a promising but arrogant kendo student, is attracted to Kokubu's devout leadership but kept at a distance by his standoffish nature. With the national championships fast approaching, the pair clash as Kokubu drives his students with increasingly rigorous training and Kagawa tests Kokubu's grip on the class.

It’s almost painfully obvious that KEN is an adaptation of a Yukio Mishima story: The stoic, conflicted protagonist; the object of perfect beauty over which he obsesses; the clash of tradition and modernity embodied in his inability to connect with his peers. What director Kenji Misumi brings is an air of objectivity, following Kokubu’s rise and fall through his eyes, those of his fellow kendo students, and those of his greatest rival.

References:

• Read “Sword” from Yukio Mishima’s “Acts of Worship”
• “Kenji Misumi: Both Lone Wolf and the Cub” by John Moret for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets at https://www.trylon.org/
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#KenjiMisumisSamuraiSixties #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [e-mail] to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music from the KEN soundtrack by Sei Ikeno.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 297: KEN (1964)

2:26 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

4:59 - Chambara expectations vs. Mishima reality

24:27 - Sports movies are great places to bake in endemic nationalism

32:19 - Balancing myth and mortality in Kokubu

35:39 - What Kokubu learns (and doesn’t learn) from his kendo master

44:01 - “He's a normal man after all”: How Kagawa tries to change Kokubu

53:53 - Is KEN a tragic call to arms or a warning about festering fascist sympathies?

1:05:47 - The Junk Drawer

1:10:55 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1964

1:13:50 - Cody’s Noteys: KEN? We Fans! (examining ratings from Letterboxd profiles with KEN in their Top 4)