Genres never really die, but they often mutate into something different on foreign soil. John Ford¡¯s cowboys became Akira Kurosawa¡¯s samurai, and Kurosawa¡¯s samurai became Sergio Leone¡¯s serape-clad, cigarillo-chewing ¡°The Man With No Name.¡± And the list goes on.
The same is true of that quintessential Hollywood genre, the all-singing and all-dancing musical, whose last rites had long since been pronounced by the time ¡°La La Land¡± (2016) brought it back to triumphant box office life.
However, the Hollywood-style musical never really took root in Japan, though the local industry has made hundreds of films with singing and dancing in more ¡°natural¡± settings.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.