Night Drum

Night Drum (1958)

DramaHistory

Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially greeted by the effusive welcome of his family, spiteful whispers also reach his ear about an adulterous affair carried on, in his long absence, between his wife and a famous drummer. With Hikokuro’s honor imperiled by rumor, his family insists on a formal investigation into the veracity of the gossip. Through the combined testimony of many witnesses, a tale unwinds around the visits of a traveling musician hired to tutor the family heir, the spurned attentions of the man who started the rumor, and the ultimate truth behind the accusations. The conclusion of events prove as much an indictment of bushidō as it is of the reluctant parties involved. Adapted from a 1706 play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and based on a true case.

Director: Tadashi Imai
Writers: Kaneto Shindō, Shinobu Hashimoto.

Casts

	Rentaro Mikuni as Hikokurô Ogura
	Ineko Arima as Otane, Hikokurô's wife
	Masayuki Mori as Miyaji, the drum teacher
	Sumiko Hidaka as Oyura
	Keiko Yukishiro as
	Tomoko Naraoka as Orin
	Emiko Azuma as
	Kikue Mōri as
	Shizue Natsukawa as
	Mannosuke Nakamura as
	Nobuo Kaneko as
	Eijirō Tōno as
	Ichirō Sugai as
	Yoshi Katō as
	Taiji Tonoyama as
	Eijirō Yanagi as
	Someshō Matsumoto as
	Jun Hamamura as
	Ton Shimada as
	Kōjirō Kusanagi as
	Kōshirō Harada as

Crew