Star Wars as a Nō Play

I recently discovered the art of the Japanese Nō play. Nō is a highly stylized form of performance art, acted by skilled male artists. A Nō play is acted on a polished cypress stage of a specific size, with a "bridge" linking the stage to a curtained green room. The actors perform a sort of dance as they speak and sing their lines, each tiny gesture filled with meaning.

Nō plays traditionally involve an aspect of the supernatural, with ghosts or gods making an appearance in the play. At some point in each play, there must be a point where some character reveals himself to be other than he is, often a god or ghost posing as a man (or woman). These plays involve the use of masks to show that an actor is old or young, male or female, man or god.

So what does Nō have to do with Star Wars? As I was thinking about the idea of someone in a mask revealing their true self, I couldn't help but imagine an actor making that terrible revelation: "No, Luke. I am your father." At first it was just a comical extension of Star Wars into a place it didn't seem to belong. But then, suddenly, it wasn't.

You see, George Lucas loves to pull ideas from other cultures, including Japan. In large part, the original Star Wars film is based on Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. So why couldn't Star Wars show the influence of Nō?

As I pondered I came to my own revelation: Most of the big revelatory scenes occur during lightsaber battles, and most of the lightsaber battles occur on catwalks or in narrow hallways. This felt suspiciously like the revelatory bridge from a Nō play. I'll point out two examples:

1. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan battles Vader in a narrow hallway. As they fight, they reveal their past relationship. Then, at a key moment, Obi-Wan raises his lightsaber in a sort of salute and is struck down by Vader. But suddenly he is not there, revealing himself to be more than just a man, returning later as a "Force ghost."
2. Empire features the famous climactic scene scene in which Luke battles Darth Vader. They range all over a "stage" (the carbon freezing platform) and end up on a catwalk, where Vader gives his infamous pronouncement, revealing himself to be Luke's father (a man, rather than a faceless god).

A further bit of evidence relates to motions with the Force. Just as in Nō plays, a small gesture is intended to signify a larger effect - Obi-Wan moves his hand slightly to show that he is influencing someone's mind. A twitch of a hand can Force-push someone across a room. And what about Darth Vader's famous Force choke?

The more I look into this, watching scene after scene of the various Star Wars movies, the more I come to realize: It's not so much that you could adapt Star Wars into a Nō play, it already is an adaptation of Nō play. Bravo, George Lucas!