Eisenstein was surprised by the techniques used in Japanese Kabuki theater that were similar to film techniques. Kabuki actors would perform "mechanical cuts" by pausing and changing their emotional expression or makeup to shift between emotions in an abrupt way, similar to Eisenstein's editing. He also admired how actors would fragment their performance by focusing expressions through different body parts for shorter periods, intensifying the drama. Eisenstein saw these Kabuki techniques as examples that could achieve similar effects through the camera, relating the theater experience to the development of cinema.

1. THE UNEXPECTED

2. WHAT IS IT THAT IS
UNEXPECTED?
Theatre turning into cinema and where cinema takes the latest
step in its development.
In Kabuki, Eisenstein saw a brilliant example of effects that
might be achieved through the camera.

3. WHAT SURPRISES EISENSTEIN?
It's also VERY important to understand that Eisenstein worshipped the
Japanese for their instinctive practice.
Eisenstein admired the mechanical cutting by the actors who broke up their
acting without transitions. When an actor shifted their performance to a new
emotional intensity, sadness to madness for example, similar to how Eisenstein
shifted emotions in the way he cut shots together, they performed a
'mechanical cut' where they paused, hid their face, and applied different
makeup.
In keeping with montage, Eisenstein also admired the fragmented acting,
where an actor would only act with a single part of his body in one moment,
(his hands), then only with another part (neck, head), and each shift would last
a shorter and shorter amount of time. This would break the actor's body up
into 'shots', and as the 'shots' got shorter, the dramatic power intensified

4. HOW DOES HE RELATE THIS
EXPERIENCE TO CINEMA?
He relates this experience to cinema by using the Kabuki Theatre.
In the Kabuki Theatre one perceives light vibrations as sounds
and tremors of the air as colors. He puts it this way: One "hear
movements" and "sees sounds."

5. PARALLEL THAT EXPLAINS THE
CONCEPT.
A parallel or example of this can be seen through the opening
quotation.
"Whatever notes I can't take with my voice, I'll show with my hands."
“But here the voice does reach and the hands do point! ... And we stand
numbed by such perfection ... of montage.”
He credited the Kabuki performers for their use of visuals with sound,
perfecting a very early form of montage.
Sometimes there are intellectual questions that cannot be answered with
intellectually analyzed answers. So at times we are forced to answer
them through gestures. That's where we can truly understand the
example Eisenstein used in the opening of this chapter.

6. KABUKI THEATER
VIDEO FOOTAGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-bgSFJiKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoK3Pa9BK-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJmFeJQ6nJs