Kōchiyama Sōshun (河内山宗俊), also known in English as Priest of Darkness, is a 1936 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Sadao Yamanaka.[3] It is one of three surviving films by the director.
The original idea for Kōchiyama Sōshun came from a Kabuki play by Kawatake Mokuami, known as Kochiyama to naozamurai. In the play, the two title characters are petty criminals from the Ueno district of Edo (now Tokyo).[3] Yamanaka changed some of the characters from the play to be more good-natured, in keeping with his film aesthetic.[4] He also modernized the Kabuki play by casting actors from the Zenshin-za Group, which aimed to bring modern acting techniques to traditional Kabuki plays.[3]
^ abcMcDonald, Keiko (1994). Japanese classical theater in films. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 158–164. ISBN978-0-8386-3502-5.
^Richie, Donald (2005). A hundred years of Japanese film: a concise history, with a selective guide to DVDs and videos. Kodansha International. p. 73. ISBN978-4-7700-2995-9.