need only one set to make it. Prince writes that Kurosawa subverts the famous twelfth-century incident that the film adapts by depicting Benkei in full Noh-style costume and "furnishing the seriousness and reverence that everyone expects from the story" with Noh flute and drum music through­out. The director also radically adds a new character in the porter played by comedian Ken'ichi Enomoto, whose "jabbering undercuts the pomposity of the feudal rituals". According to Prince, Japanese censors found it rude that Kurosawa was making fun of a sacred historical incident and, perhaps because of this, they did not give their file on the film to the censors of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. Release Japanese censors failed to give a file on the film to the censors of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, thus 1945's The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail was banned as an "illegal, unreported" production. It was not released in Japan until 1952. The Criterion Collection has released The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail on DVD in North America as part of two 2009 Kurosawa-centered box sets; The First Films of Akira Kurosawa, the 23rd entry in their Eclipse series, and AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa. Analysis Critic David Conrad has said that the character of the porter, who does not exist in the original Noh or kabuki plays, prefigures Kurosawa's later commoner characters like the woodcutter in Rashomon and the villagers in Seven Samurai. "The presence of a low-class character among the high and mighty helps anchor the story in familiar ground, and the porter is free to express thoughts that proper samurai leave unsaid... Each of Kurosawa's later jidaigeki, and many of his gendaigeki as well, would use characters of different castes and classes to achieve something similar to this dynamic. His stories play out in three-dimensional social worlds, allowing him to explore events and themes from multiple perspectives." Notes References Sources External links The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail at the Japanese Movie Database 1945 films Films directed by Akira Kurosawa Jidaigeki films Samurai films Films set in the 12th century 1950s Japanese-language films Japanese black-and-white films Toho films Japanese films based on plays Films with screenplays by Akira Kurosawa Japanese drama films 1945 drama films Films set in Ishikawa Prefecture Cultural depictions of Minamoto no Yoshitsune 1950s Japanese films Censored films