STAGE REVIEWS : Japanese ‘The Winds of God’ Loses in Translation

Masayuki Imai’s “The Winds of God,” running tonight through Saturday at the Strasberg Creative Center in West Hollywood, is a moving little piece about two young Japanese men who meet with a serious accident and are sent reeling to a former incarnation as kamikaze pilots.

For the record, kami in Japanese means God, and kaze wind, hence the title. The time they spend in this former life as World War II airmen defined by their willingness to crash their planes out of patriotic fervor turns into an examination of values and, ultimately, an affirmation of life.

That is the crux of the play.

Back in the present, one of the men recovers, one does not. Slight though it is, the piece is written with humor and sensitivity by Imai, who also takes on one of the leading roles and proves a forceful, intense actor. Ryo Onoda as his sweet, playful, seductively bashful buddy is a nice match.

Anyone with a lingering curiosity about what further uses there may be for the Method, the late Lee Strasberg’s transmogrification of Konstantin Stanislavski’s acting precepts that took American actors by storm in the ‘50s and ‘60s, may be interested to see what happens when it’s processed, as it is here, through yet another culture.

Except for a cameo performed by Lisa Inoue, a Japanese-American, the company and the director all come from Tokyo. Director Yoko Narahashi claims responsibility for introducing the Strasberg method to Japan and, judging from what we see, this late 19th-Century Russian acting technique, Americanized in the mid-20th (not always to the good), emerges relatively unscathed. According to Narahashi, it helps an emotionally uptight and concealed society learn to be more confrontational.

We’ll take her word for it. Certainly the acting in “Winds of God” is frequently both emotional and confrontational, although it never oversteps the bounds of discipline.

Masayasu Omura gives a stirring performance as one of the committed squadron members who sees his suicide in combat as a way to rejoin his mother who has just died. Osamu Sato and Masanobu Yada play two other resolute squadron members and Takashi Ishinabe is their rigid commander.

All are strong. The powerful sound effects (Toshio Fujii) and helpful lighting (Mr. Kato) deserve mention, but there’s a hitch. A decision was made to present the play in English and the Japanese actors, Imai included, are not fluent in it.

They have learned their lines more or less phonetically. Some do better than others getting the words out. None does well. It is frustrating at best to follow the conversational parts of this play.

A wiser and more interesting choice might have been to let the actors perform in Japanese and let the public fend with the synopsis. Under the circumstances, “Winds of God” may prove more of a curio for members of the profession than a general audience piece.

* “The Winds of God,” Lee Strasberg Creative Center, 7936 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Nightly through Saturday, 8 p.m. Free. (213) 650-7777. Running time: 2 hours.