Tribute to Kenji Mizoguchi 2017 / Saikaku ichidai onna / Japan 1952
A 17th-century story cycle unified into the tale of Oharu’s decline from lady-in-waiting to common prostitute. The film balances sympathy for Oharu with a broader, Buddhist perspective, which sees sexual pleasures and social injustices alike as aspects of the evanescent material world. The stately pace and exquisitely controlled images and sounds won Mizoguchi a Venice prize, launching his reputation in the West.
Mizoguchi had wanted to adapt Ihara Saikaku’s 17th-century story cycle for several years (he left the Shochiku company because they wouldn’t let him do it), and it was his determination to match Kurosawa’s Venice prize for Rashomon that pushed him into making it for a small, independent company. He and Yoda unify the book’s episodic chapters into the story of Oharu’s decline from lady-in-waiting to common prostitute, stressing that all her setbacks are caused by the men who trick, disappoint or betray her. The film balances sympathy for Oharu with a broader, Buddhist perspective, which sees sexual pleasures and social injustices alike as aspects of the evanescent material world. (The sympathy, incidentally, was not found in Saikaku’s book.) The stately pace and exquisitely controlled images and sounds did win Mizoguchi a Venice prize, launching his reputation in the West.
Tony Rayns
137 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Festival premiere
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
/ Screenplay Yoshikata Yoda podle románu / based on the novel The Life of an Amorous Woman by Saikaku Ihara
/ Dir. of Photography Yoshimi Hirano
/ Music Ichiro Saito
/ Editor Toshio Gotô
/ Art Director Hiroshi Mizutani
/ Producer Hideo Koi, Kenji Mizoguchi
/ Production Shin-Toho, Koi Productions
/ Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune, Ichiro Sugai, Toshiaki Konoe, Tsukie Matsuura
/ Sales Toho Co., Ltd.
/ Contact The Japan Foundation
The Japan Foundation
4-16-3 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, 160-0004, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 355 623 535
Fax: +81 355 623 500
E-mail: [email protected]
Toho Co., Ltd.
1-2-2 Yurakucho, 100-8415, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 335 913 530
Fax: +81 335 916 610
E-mail: [email protected]
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