![]() ![]() ![]() “Benshi is short for a term that roughly translates to ‘moving picture translation person,’” explains Lependorf. The medium of neo-benshi has its roots in the silent-film era in Japan, where, in lieu of running actual translated dialogue on screen, movie houses would hire benshi artists to narrate, describe, or explain what was being depicted. It really runs the gamut, from high to low art.” It’s not improvised: The poets who perform are each given a scene to work with, and they create and rehearse their pieces. “Besides being hysterically funny and weird, it can also be serious and deeply moving. “It’s a kind of poetic theater, really,” says Jeffrey Lependorf, the foundation’s executive director and the event’s curator. Think about it: What would life in modern America be like without sushi, manga, or karaoke? And now, add to the list the art of neo-benshi, which sees its practitioners replacing the dialogue of scenes from popular films with their own new, original-and often side-splittingly surreal-dialogue for audiences at live screenings.Īfter making its debut there four years ago, the craze will again return to Hudson Hall on July 30, when the Flow Chart Foundation will present “Flow Chart Cabaret Cinema: A Night of Neo-Benshi.” Here in the 21st-century US, we can trace so much of our current popular culture to East Asia. ![]() A still from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), one of the films that will be screened as part of Flow Chart Cabaret Cinema on July 30 at Hudson Hall.
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