In this fascinating excursion into the world of seventeenth centuryKabuki actors, Kazuo Hasegawa portrays the nimaime actor Tojuro Sakata of Kyoto,who is faced with a challenge to the style and breadth of his classic portrayalswhen a rival actor from Edo appears on the scene. Nimaime, or "second,"refers to the role of the romantic lover, handsome but gentle and thereforesecond to the tateyaku, typified by the unbending samurai who is incapable ofshowing love. The nimaime is also the prototype for the Hasegawa leading man inthe Japanese cinema, and his performance in this 1955 film reflects a kind ofself knowledge few actors possess. With the playwright Chikamatsu (Sakae Ozawa),Tojuro devises a new approach to the drama, taking inspiration not from thepatterns of fiction but from life itself. Chikamatsu is moved by the sight of anadulteress and her lover being led across the Sanjo bridge to the gallows, andthe now classic Chikamatsu monogatari is born. But is the old Tojuro, beinginexperienced in matters of adultery, up to his new role? On the eve of openingnight, he approaches the innkeeper's wife, Okaji, whose love for him is manifestin the smallest ways.... But for an actor such as Tojuro, there can be only onelove. Kazuo Mori's visual style translates the bustle of a Kyoto inn andstreetlife into beautifully fluid traveling shots, and the measured passions ofthe Kabuki drama into a distant stillness. It is an altogether lovely film thatdoes justice to the performances by Hasegawa and Machiko Kyo as the gracious andvulnerable Okaji. Hasegawa reenacts the role he portrayed in Kajiro Yamamoto's1938 version Loves of Tojuro (PFA 8/82), just as he would later recreate the partof the Kabuki onnagata of Kinugasa's 1935 An Actor's Revenge in the 1963 Ichikawaversion.