Red Lion

Red Lion may refer to:

Red Lion (film)

Red Lion (赤毛, Akage) is a 1969 Japanese film directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshirō Mifune and Shima Iwashita.

Plot summary

Gonzo (Toshiro Mifune), a member of the Imperial Restoration Force, is being asked by the emperor to deliver official news to his home village of a New World Order. Wanting to pose as a military officer, he dons the Red Lion Mane of Office. Upon his return, his attempt to tell the village about a brand-new tax cut is quashed when the townfolk mistakenly assumes that he is there to rescue them from corrupt government officials. He learns that an evil magistrate has been swindling them for years. Now, he has to help the village, ward off Shogunate fanatics, along with the fact that he can't read his own proclamations.

The director, Kihachi Okamoto, is well known for introducing plot twists and surprising endings in his films, and Red Lion is no exception. What starts out as an almost comedic series of misunderstandings between almost comically drawn characters ends up turning far more serious as the film progresses. Tomi (Iwashita), as Gonzo's (Mifune) old flame, is tragically torn between her hopes that Gonzo's new marriage proposal is genuine, and her fears that her life will never improve unless she "goes along" with the corrupt and powerful who rule over the peasant's lives. The film ends with the peasants dancing to the cry of "Ee ja nai ka" ("Why not!?", "Whatever!", or "Nevermind!"), which fatalistically refers to the tumultuous 1866-67 period of Japanese history immediately preceding the imperial restoration and the end of the Edo period.

Red Lion (theatre)

The Red Lion was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Whitechapel (part of the modern Borough of Tower Hamlets), just outside the City of London. Built in 1567, by John Brayne, formerly a grocer, this theatre was a short-lived attempt to provide a purpose-built playhouse, the first known in London, for the many Tudor touring theatrical companies.

The Red Lion had been a farm, but a single gallery multi-sided theatre (constructed by John Williams), with a fixed stage 40 feet (12.2 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m), standing 5 feet (1.5 m) above the audience, was built by John Reynolds, in the garden of the farmhouse. The stage was equipped with trapdoors, and an attached 30 feet (9.1 m) turret, or fly tower – for aerial stunts and to advertise its presence. The construction cost £20, and while it appears to have been a commercial success, the Red Lion offered little that the prior tradition of playing in inns had not offered, and it was too far from its audiences to be attractive (at the time, the area was open farmland) for visiting in the winter.

Red Lion, Snargate

The Red Lion is a Grade II listed public house at Snargate, Kent, TN29 9UQ.

It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.

It was built in the 18th century.

References

Coordinates: 51°01′19″N 0°50′12″E / 51.021900°N 0.836528°E / 51.021900; 0.836528

Snargate

Coordinates: 51°01′21″N 0°50′13″E / 51.0226°N 0.837°E / 51.0226; 0.837

Snargate is a village near New Romney in Kent, England.

Snargate was home to artist Harold Gilman, sometimes called the English Van Gogh. He was a British Impressionist and a member of the Camden Town Group. He grew up at Snargate Rectory, where his father was Rector. Harold was born in 1876, and lived at the Rectory till his thirties, when he brought his bride Grace to live there, for the first two years of their marriage, 1902-04. His father continued to live there till his death in 1917. Harold Gilman only lived two years longer, dying in 1919 as one of the numerous victims of the so-called Spanish Influenza outbreak at the end of the First World War.

The painting "Interior" of about 1908 (Private Collection) is supposed to have been painted inside the Rectory.

Source: "The Painters of Camden Town", by F Farmar (Christie's 1988), page 59.

Snargate has a well known pub, The Red Lion, which originates from the early 16th century and has been run by the current family since 1911 and, except for the odd lick of paint, has not been redecorated since 1890. This is a tiny pub with an antique marble bar top and bare wooden floor. The draught beers, principally from independent Kentish brewers, are served directly from the cask. The walls are decorated with World War II era memorabilia. The pub, run by Doris Jemison, has won a number of awards including CAMRA's Ashford Folkestone and Romney Marsh Branch Pub of the Year, the Kent CAMRA Pub of the Year, and the South East Regional Pub of the Year. It is a Grade II listed public house, and is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.