SADO TEMPEST

Shakespeare Gets an Eastern Reimagining

Venue: Rooms 903, Building 11, Waseda Campus
January 21, Saturday, 2017: 12:30 – 14:30
Official website: www.waseda.jp/flas/hss/news/2016/12/21/2820/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hkVwiUv1o
Tariff:  Free Admission, only 60 seats available to public
Advance tickets: If you would like to ensure a seat, register for January 21 here: https://goo.gl/5hlzXB
Talk event: Director, John Williams

Title: 佐渡テンペスト (SADO TEMPEST)

As part of Waseda University’s International Conference: Shakespeare. Film. East. West., Japan-based filmmaker John Williams will be presenting a rare English-subbed version of his extraordinary 2012 film Sado Tempest. If you haven’t seen the film, or want to revisit it, here’s your chance.

A radical reimagining of the bard’s “The Tempest” that fuses Noh theater, taiko drumming and Japanese rock, Sado Tempest is set in a near future Japan (although it looks suspiciously earlier, if the Beatles suits ‘n’ coifs are any clue), when rock has been banned. Rebel rock star Jun Tokushima (Yasunori Henmi) is exiled to Sado, which is in a state of permanent winter after the titular storm. He attempts to escape, but there is no way off the prison island. His only hope seems to lie in the strange, ancient Demon Songs that the enchantress Miranda (Noriko Eguchi) trills endlessly, but how to track down the mysterious ogre who keeps appearing in his dreams? If only he can break the songs’ code, can Jun restore Spring to the world.

Set against Sado’s unique scenery — including the ruins of a goldmine, a primeval forest and volcanic coast — awhirl with color and cryptic symbolism, punctuated by thrilling indie-rock songs from real-life band Jitterbug, the film thoroughly conjures up a Japanese version of Shakespeare’s magical world; what critic Tom Mes called “a mystical tale of primordial powers both natural and supernatural that connects Shakespeare and rock ‘n’ roll, apocalyptic sci-fi and the most ancient forms of nature worship.”

On the theatrical release of Sado Tempest, Williams joked that it was “a weird little film,” but spoke eloquently about the effects of the Fukushima disaster on its genesis. The shoot began in March 2011, during the coldest winter on the island in 50 years. “When I first visited Sado Island in 2008,” recalled Williams, “I was immediately struck by parallels with Shakespeare's ‘The Tempest…’ [and] I began to imagine a hybrid version, a weird blend of Japanese culture, old and new, and the bones of the play itself, transformed by a storm that has gone terribly wrong, trying to find its way back to some kind of new spring. Ultimately, what started as a metaphor for the state of Japanese society and the effects of the long depression turned into something completely different as a result of the tragedy that started on March 11, 2011, just three days into our shoot.”

If you would like to ensure a seat, register for January 21st here: https://goo.gl/5hlzXB

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