Atypically comic for Mikio Naruse, Traveling Actors follows an itinerant Kabuki troupe, focusing on two actors who play a horse—the older and more experienced in charge of the front legs, the younger relegated to the rear—but whose jobs are threatened when a real animal is hired to play the part. Naruse called this one of his personal favorites, saying “the actor who plays the front legs of the horse . . . sees his role as a serious art form. However, the harder he tries to succeed, the funnier things get for the audience. That’s the kind of comedy I wanted to make.”

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