Underplayed Gems

The Million Ryo Pot (1935)

The Million Ryo Pot poster
Original title
丹下左膳餘話 百萬兩の壺
Directed by
Sadao Yamanaka
Genre
Jidaigeki
Country
Japan
Runtime
1h 32m
Rating
7.4 of 10 from 37 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A ronin swordsman unknowingly comes into possession of a pot that holds the map to a huge treasure. He spends his days caring for a young boy and trading banter with the boy's mother figure.

playfullightheartedwhimsicalbreezycomicgentlefunnywarmhearted

What happens

The Million Ryo Pot (also known as Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryō (Japanese: 丹下左膳余話 百萬両の壺, Hepburn: Tange Sazen Yowa: Hyakuman Ryō no Tsubo)) is a 1935 Japanese jidaigeki comedy film directed by Sadao Yamanaka. The plot revolves around a missing pot containing the map to a treasure worth a million ryō; this pot is eventually given to a young boy under the custody of rōnin swordsman Tange Sazen (played by Denjirō Ōkōchi). Unaware that he is in possession of such riches, Tange spends much of his time caring for the boy and bickering with the boy's adopted mother, his love interest, in a manner akin to a screwball comedy. The film is a parody of the more serious samurai films of the time, with Yamanaka transforming Tange from a rebellious, anarchic rōnin (as he was in earlier films) into a child-loving and openhearted homebody. The film is the earliest of Yamanaka's three surviving films, with him directing it when he was 25 years old. In Japan, it is considered one of the nation's best films. In a 2009 poll of Japanese critics, Kinema Junpo ranked it the 7th best Japanese film of all time. Akira Kurosawa cited it as one of his 100 favorite films. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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