Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women [4 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Over the course of a three-decade, more than eighty film career, master cineaste Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff) would return again and again to one abiding theme: the plight of women in Japanese society. In these four lacerating works of social consciousness---two prewar (Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion), two postwar (Women of the Night, Street of Shame)---Mizoguchi introduces an array of compelling female protagonists, crushed or resilient, who are forced by their conditions and culture into compromising positions. With Mizoguchi's visual daring and eloquence, these films are as cinematically thrilling as they are politically rousing.

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 4
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Screen: Black and White
• Subtitle: Eng

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Isuzu Yamada - Ayako Murai
       Kensaku Hara - Susumu Nishimura
       Aiko Mimasu - Yumeko
       Ayako Wakao - Yasumi

• Director:

  Kenji Mizoguchi

• Producer:

  Masaichi Nagata

• Screenwriter:

  Kenji Mizoguchi, Yoshikata Yoda, Masashige Narusawa

• Cinematographer:

  Minoru Miki, Kohei Sugiyama, Kazuo Miyagawa

• Composer (Music Score):

  Hisato Osawa, Toshiro Mayuzumi

• Production Designer:

  Hiroshi Mizutani

REVIEW:

• At a time when heartwarming family dramas were the norm, Osaka Elegy (1936) delivered an unprecedented dose of hard reality to Japanese cinema. Considered Kenji Mizoguchi's finest pre-war work, along with Sisters of the Gion, this drama is a searing critique of social hypocrisy that moves the viewer without stooping to sentimentality. As in much of Mizoguchi's work, women suffer at the hands of men who are portrayed as vain, callous, and weak. Yet there is little room for the sort of wistful transcendence found in such later masterpieces as Life of Oharu (1952). Instead, there is an accusing finger pointed at society. The commentary in this film proved too sharp for some, and in 1940 the Japanese militarist government banned it as too pessimistic. Actress Isuzu Yamada delivers a stunning performance as the perpetually unfortunate Ayako, while Minoru Miki's cinematography deftly captures the glitz and squalor of Tokyo in the 1930s. For Mizoguchi, Osaka marked a significant turning point in his long and illustrious career: it was his first of many collaborations with screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda and his first film to showcase the elegant visual style made famous in such later classics as Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). Osaka Elegy is a devastating work by a master approaching the pinnacle of his abilities. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi