Eisenstein was surprised by the techniques used in Japanese Kabuki theater that were similar to film techniques like montage. He admired how Kabuki actors would perform "mechanical cuts" by pausing and changing their emotional intensity or focusing different body parts to intensify drama. Eisenstein saw this as an early form of montage editing and believed it demonstrated how movements could be "heard" and sounds could be "seen" like in cinema, relating his film experience to elements of Kabuki performance.