Gonza the Spearman

Set in the Tokugawa period, when appearances counted above everything, the film tells the tragedy of Gonza, a handsome man with a reputation among women. Gonza competes with Bannojo for the honour of performing the tea ceremony to mark the birth of an heir to their lord. In order to see the sacred tea scrolls he promises to marry the daughter of the family that holds them, although he is unofficially engaged elsewhere. While he is studying the scrolls with Osai, the mother of the house, Bannojo slips in, steals both their sashes and runs through the town proclaiming the two of them adulterers. Masahiro Shinoda’s hundred and twenty six minute film was adapted from an eighteenth century play by Monzaemon Chikamatsu, scored by Toru Takemitsu, and it won a Silver Bear for artistic contribution at Berlin in 1986.