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A man gives an old pot to his brother, not realising there is a treasure map inside. It then gets sold and lost, while more and more people start looking for the pot, hoping to improve their lot in life. With a cast of colourful characters, including the world-weary, one-armed and one-eyed rōnin Tange Sazen. A funny fusion of drama and comedy. One of three surviving masterpieces by Yamanaka Sadao, now digitally restored in 4K with recently discovered extra scenes not seen before. English subtitles are from the MoC DVD. This new 4K restoration added around 16 seconds to a scene which had to be accounted for in syncing, otherwise there were no complications. This extended scene is actually found on the MoC DVD as an extra, but the restoration has made it watchable now, and if you’ve seen the film before, without the extra bit, that scene does feel a bit jarring. Unfortunately, this extension comes from the silent toy film referred to above, so there is no audio. This film was notably picked by Kinema Junpo as the eighth best Japanese film of all time. Indeed, the film is a masterpiece. Yamanaka had, in his 20s no less, a level of precision on par with masters such as Ozu, in his pacing, editing, framing, sense of humor, etc.; this film is simply a joy from start to finish. I am continually moved by its humanism, how every piece falls into place, the beautiful music. Perhaps my holy grail are Yamanaka’s lost films, a few of which Kon Ichikawa have strongly admired, including one (Furyu katsujinken) which he describes as having “created a new film narration.“
