Didn't know about the benshi tradition! It does sound astonishing.

rushthatspeaks was explaining to me how anime evolved out of street theater benshi (as well as the shift from film narration into what we would consider voice acting). I am hoping they write about the performance, because I could recognize maybe a handful of words or phrases as they went by in the dialogue, but Rush understood exactly what he was saying.

(Rush also says Shoes was the most Japanese film they'd ever seen from an American studio, which accounts for why Bluebird Photoplays is nearly forgotten in this country and their impact on Japanese cinema is almost incalculable. I would love to see another one with benshi narration sometime.)