Which is *weird* because Belne's characters were all Jimmy Plant viewed through a tanbi lens.
It kills me in the trad photo that she looks like a handsome kabuki actor and whoever she's playing with looks like an onnagata-- a bit dumpy, and thick and jowly through the face.
Mentioning Takarazuka and Mao Weitang's operas in the same sentence is a bit of a startlement. Not the same planet, even.
Yes, isn't it strange? Because I know the type that was the basis for Belne's design, and she doesn't really look like that. Or maybe she does, but refined ten thousand times.
It's funny but true, there are a sizable number of Mao weitao fans who are also Takarazuka fans. Particularly Amami Yuki, which I can understand. You might think they're not from the same planet, but I think the Chinese fans see Takarazuka filtered through a certain idealized view, and even Mao Weitao herself is a fan of the idea of Takarazuka and their management, though I'm not sure if she actually is a fan of their style.
It's a Belne mouth, esp in that second photo, all ravaged with passion, and the stricken eyes that conceal tragic emotions. The nose too is unusual, at once too refined for a Belne male but too odd for trad Japanese beauty.
It's the cheesiness of Takarazaka, which is the sort of lovable reassuring cheese the Japanese do in their popular culture, delightful and easy to grasp. Noh it isn't. What little opera I've seen, thanks to you, doesn't look cheesy to me. Or if it does, as in Beijing opera, I feel I'm missing something along the way. There's an intellectual component, certainly to Mao Weitao's opera, that's lacking from Takarazaka's Gone With the Wind.
At the same time I can see how you might import that intellectual aspect from your own worldview, as I used to intellectualize the content of schlock samurai TV shows.
Oh, yes, you're right, it is the mouth, and something around the jaw. I have been trying to put my fingers on it. There are plenty of Western stars with that kind of very sculpted jaws and cheek, and others with very sharp features, but if I compare her photos with theirs then everyone else comes across as coarse. It's really a very unusual face. Her jawline is almost unnaturally clean. But I thought her nose was quite traditional Japanese, there's one photo of her which looks exactly like a print of a kabuki actor
( ... )
Comments 9
Reply
Which is *weird* because Belne's characters were all Jimmy Plant viewed through a tanbi lens.
It kills me in the trad photo that she looks like a handsome kabuki actor and whoever she's playing with looks like an onnagata-- a bit dumpy, and thick and jowly through the face.
Mentioning Takarazuka and Mao Weitang's operas in the same sentence is a bit of a startlement. Not the same planet, even.
Reply
It's funny but true, there are a sizable number of Mao weitao fans who are also Takarazuka fans. Particularly Amami Yuki, which I can understand. You might think they're not from the same planet, but I think the Chinese fans see Takarazuka filtered through a certain idealized view, and even Mao Weitao herself is a fan of the idea of Takarazuka and their management, though I'm not sure if she actually is a fan of their style.
Reply
It's the cheesiness of Takarazaka, which is the sort of lovable reassuring cheese the Japanese do in their popular culture, delightful and easy to grasp. Noh it isn't. What little opera I've seen, thanks to you, doesn't look cheesy to me. Or if it does, as in Beijing opera, I feel I'm missing something along the way. There's an intellectual component, certainly to Mao Weitao's opera, that's lacking from Takarazaka's Gone With the Wind.
At the same time I can see how you might import that intellectual aspect from your own worldview, as I used to intellectualize the content of schlock samurai TV shows.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment