I was introduced to the art of Bunraku (Japanese puppet theater) by Takeshi Kitano's film "Dolls", the title of which refers most directly, but not exclusively, to this theatrical tradition. It is enacted by half-life-size dolls and their visible but shrouded onstage manipulators. The movie opens with such a performance (watch here) - a drama of doomed lovers - and resonates throughout the rest of the movie, thus making a statement regarding destiny, connections between people and the strings of life: how much of what we do in our lives involves attempting to pull the strings of others, or are determined by others who pull our strings? This scene moved me so much at that time, that I believed to have never before had seen anything more expressive.
As a mix of dramatic narration (performed only by men, and it is amazingly varied in tone and pitch as to convey any emotion possible), expressive movement, shamisen music and breathtaking costumes, Bunraku originated sometime in the 1600s, thought wasn’t called that until the 1800 after a theater in Osaka (see history). The dolls themselves are carved out of wood, wear superb wigs and costumes. Male dolls are equipped with expressive facial mechanisms, and the female dolls are more mask-like but more expressive through gesture and kinesics, instead. The sets used in Bunraku are designed in such a way, that they are able to recreate with great detail any scene in a micro-world, and are rearranged throughout the show by fully-masked assistants. The puppeteers themselves are highly skilled and it requires three puppeteers to manipulate one doll.
picture source
You can watch here a wonderful documentary about Bunraku here:
PART 1
PART 2
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