Movielogr
Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis (1990)
Directed by Michael Blackwood
Overview
“Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis” is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies. Although Butoh is often viewed as Japan’s equivalent of modern dance, in actuality it has little to do with the rational principles of modernism. Butoh is a theater of improvisation which places the personal experiences of the dancer on center-stage. By reestablishing the ancient Japanese connection of dance, music, and masks, and by recalling the Buddhist death dances of rural Japan, Butoh incorporates much traditional theater. At the same time, it is a movement of resistance against the abandonment of traditional culture to a highly organized consumer-oriented society.
Length 90 minutes
Actors
Yoko Ashikawa | Akiko Motofuji | Nario Goda | Tatsumi Hijikata | Yukio Waguri | Akaji Maro | Natsu Nakajima | Sanae Hiruta | Kazuo Ohno | Min Tanaka | Ushio Amagatsu | Yoshiyuki Takada | Keiji Morita | Goro Namerikawa | Atsushi Ogata | Masaku Kaita | Toshiyuki Tanigawa | Ko Murobushi | Koichi Tamano | Shusei Asada | Hikaru Otsubo | Katsuyoshi Yamamura | Kinya Tsuruyama | Nobutaka Kuwabara | Mutsuo Tanaka | Chiyomi Tamura | Yuri Sakurai | Makiko Tominaga | Fumie Hippo | Takako Suzuki | Satomi Kawakami | Haruko Kudo | Yumiko Saeki | Ima Tenko | Norikazu Sato | Norio Imanishi | Naruhiko Kadawa | Arawakasyu | Ritsu Minatama | Ine Yatsushima | Tsuruko Noguchi | Kasumi Muraki | Torio Nogi | Ismau Ohsuka | Hideki Nakazato | Yoichi Mori | Karuko Aiyama | Kao Arahata | Yukara Nakai | Tomoe Shizune | Harumi Kitaguchi | Ea Sola | Hisako Horikawa | Frank Van De Ven | Francois Evangilisti | Sei Nagatsuka | Yasunari Tamai | Andres Salgado | Tess de Quincy | Kyoko Komatsu | Christine Quoiraud | Katerina Bakatsaki | Naoyuki Oguri | Shoko Ashikawa | Seisaku Ashikawa | Mito Ashikawa | Yukinko Ashikawa | Uzumi Ashikawa | Megumi Ashikawa | Tetsuo Sakaibara | Takeru Kono | Sadahiko Irisawa | Yoshito Ohno