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Kenji Mizoguchi

May 03, 2023

Kenji Mizoguchi (溝口 健二, Mizoguchi Kenji, 16 May 1898 – 24 August 1956) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956.[1][2][3] His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954),[4][5] with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan.[2][3][6] Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.[7] David Thomson writes that "The use of camera to convey emotional ideas or intelligent feelings is the definition of cinema derived from Mizoguchi's films. He is supreme in the realization of internal states in external views."[8] Orson Welles said of Mizoguchi, "He can't be praised enough, really."[9]

Kenji Mizoguchi
Born(1898-05-16)16 May 1898
Hongō, Tokyo, Japan
Died24 August 1956(1956-08-24) (aged 58)
Kyoto, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter
Years active1923–1956
Notable work
Kenji Mizoguchi travelling through Europe, 1953

Biography

Early years

Mizoguchi was born in Hongō, Tokyo, as the second of three children, to Zentaro Miguchi, a roofing carpenter, and his wife Masa.[10][11][12] The family's background was relatively humble until the father's failed business venture of selling raincoats to the Japanese troops during the Russo-Japanese War.[10][11][12] The family was forced to move to the downtown district of Asakusa and gave Mizoguchi's older sister Suzu up for adoption, which in effect meant selling her into the geisha profession.[10][11][12]

In 1911, Mizoguchi's parents, too poor to continue paying for their son's primary school training, sent him to stay with an uncle in Morioka in northern Japan for a year,[10][11] where he finished primary school.[11] His return coincided with an onset of crippling rheumatoid arthritis,[11] which left him with a walking gait for the rest of his life.[10] In 1913, his sister Suzu secured him an apprenticeship as a designer for a yukata manufacturer, and in 1915, after the mother's death, she brought both her younger brothers into her own house.[10][11] Mizoguchi enrolled for a course at the Aoibashi Yoga Kenkyuko art school in Tokyo, which taught Western painting techniques,[10][11] and developed an interest in opera, particularly at the Royal Theatre at Akasaka where he helped the set decorators with set design and construction.[10][12]

In 1917, his sister again helped him to find work, this time as an advertisement designer with the Yuishin Nippon newspaper in Kobe.[10][11][12] The film critic Tadao Sato has pointed out a coincidence between Mizoguchi's life in his early years and the plots of shinpa dramas, which characteristically documented the sacrifices made by geisha on behalf of the young men they were involved with. Probably because of his familial circumstances, "the subject of women's suffering is fundamental in all his work; while sacrifice – in particular, the sacrifice a sister makes for a brother – makes a key showing in a number of his films, including some of the greatest ones (Sansho the Bailiff/Sansho Dayu [1954], for example)."[10] After less than a year in Kobe, however, Mizoguchi returned "to the bohemian delights of Tokyo" (Mark Le Fanu).[10] In 1920, Mizoguchi entered the film industry as an assistant director at the Nikkatsu studios in Mukojima, Tokyo.[2][3] Three years later, he gave his directorial debut with Ai ni yomigaeru hi (The Resurrection of Love).[2][3]

Film career

After the 1923 earthquake in Tokyo, Mizoguchi moved to Nikkatsu's studios in Kyoto. His early works included remakes of German Expressionist cinema[2][3] and adaptations of Eugene O'Neill and Leo Tolstoy.[10] While working in Kyoto, he studied kabuki and noh theatre, and traditional Japanese dance and music.[12] He was also a frequent visitor of the tea houses, dance halls and brothels in Kyoto and Osaka,[10] which at one time resulted in a widely covered incident of him being attacked by a jealous prostitute and then-lover with a razor.[10][11][13] His 1926 Passion of a Woman Teacher (Kyōren no onna shishō) was one of a handful of Japanese films shown in France and Germany at the time and received considerate praise,[5] but is nowadays lost like most of his 1920s and early 1930s films.[6] By the end of the decade, Mizoguchi directed a series of left-leaning "tendency films", including Tokyo March and Metropolitan Symphony (Tokai kokyōkyoku).[2][3][10]

In 1932, Mizoguchi left Nikkatsu and worked for a variety of studios and production companies.[10] The Water Magician (1933) and Orizuru Osen (1935) were melodramas based on stories by Kyōka Izumi, depicting women who sacrifice themselves to secure a poor young man's education. Both have been cited as early examples of his reccurring theme of female concerns and "one-scene-one-shot" camera technique,[2][6] which would become his trademark.[14] The 1936 diptych of Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion, about modern young women (moga) rebelling against their surroundings, is considered to be his early masterpiece.[15][16][17] Mizoguchi himself named these two films as the works with which he achieved artistic maturity.[18] Osaka Elegy was also his first full sound film,[19] and marked the beginning of his long collaboration with screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda.[15][20]

1939, the year when Mizoguchi became president of the Directors Guild of Japan,[10] saw the release of The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, which is regarded by many critics as his major pre-war,[18] if not his best work.[21][22] Here, a young woman supports her partner's struggle to achieve artistic maturity as a kabuki actor at the price of her health.

During World War II, Mizoguchi made a series of films whose patriotic nature seemed to support the war effort. The most famous of these is a retelling of the classic samurai tale The 47 Ronin (1941–42), an epic jidaigeki (historical drama). While some historians see these as works which he had been pressured into,[23] others believe him to have acted voluntarily.[24] Fellow screenwriter Matsutarō Kawaguchi went as far as, in an 1964 interview for Cahiers du Cinéma, calling Mizoguchi (whom he otherwise held in high regards) an "opportunist" in his art who followed the currents of the time, veering from the left to the right to finally become a democrat.[25]

1941 also saw the permanent hospitalisation of his wife Chieko (m. 1927),[10] whom he erroneously believed to have contracted with venereal disease.[26]

International recognition

 
Screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda, Actress Kinuyo Tanaka, and Kenji Mizoguchi visit Paris, 1953

During the early post-war years following the country's defeat, Mizoguchi directed a series of films concerned with the oppression of women and female emancipation both in historical (mostly the Meiji era) and contemporary settings. All of these were written or co-written by Yoda, and often starred Kinuyo Tanaka, who remained his regular leading actress until 1954, when both fell out with each other over Mizoguchi's attempt to prevent her from directing her first own film.[27][28] Utamaro and His Five Women (1946) was a notable exception of an Edo era jidaigeki film made during the Occupation, as this genre was seen as being inherently nationalistic or militaristic by the Allied censors.[18][29] Of his works of this period, Flame of My Love (1949) has repeatedly been pointed out for its unflinching presentation of its subject.[6][30] Tanaka plays a young teacher who leaves her traditionalist milieu to strive for her goal of female liberation, only to find out that her allegedly progressive partner still nourishes the accustomed attitude of male preeminence.

Mizoguchi returned to feudal era settings with The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), which won him international recognition, in particular by the Cahiers du Cinéma critics such as Jean-Luc Godard,[2] Eric Rohmer[5] and Jacques Rivette,[31] and were awarded at the Venice Film Festival.[2][3] While The Life of Oharu follows the social decline of a woman banished from the Imperial court during the Edo era, Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff examine the brutal effects of war and reigns of violence on small communities and families. In between these three films, he directed A Geisha (1953) about the pressures put upon women working in Kyoto's post-war pleasure district. After two historical films shot in colour (Tales of the Taira Clan and Princess Yang Kwei Fei, both 1955),[32][33] Mizoguchi once more explored a contemporary milieu (a brothel in the Yoshiwara district) in black-and-white format with his last film, the 1956 Street of Shame.

Mizoguchi died of leukemia at the age of 58[11][32][34] in the Kyoto Municipal Hospital.[26] At the time of his death, Mizoguchi was working on the script of An Osaka Story, which was later realised by Kōzaburō Yoshimura.[35]

Legacy

In 1975, Kaneto Shindō, a set designer, chief assistant director and scenarist for Mizoguchi in the late 1930s and 1940s, released a documentary about his former mentor, Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director,[26] as well as publishing a book on him in 1976.[36] Already with his autobiographical debut film Story of a Beloved Wife (1951), Shindō had paid reference to Mizoguchi in the shape of the character "Sakaguchi",[37] a director who nurtures a young aspiring screenwriter.

Mizoguchi's films have regularly appeared in "best film" polls, such as Sight & Sound's "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" (Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff)[38] and Kinema Junpo's "Kinema Junpo Critics' Top 200" (The Life of Oharu, Ugetsu and The Crucified Lovers).[39] A retrospective of his 30 extant films, presented by the Museum of the Moving Image and the Japan Foundation, toured several American cities in 2014.[40] Among the directors who have admired Mizoguchi's work are Akira Kurosawa,[41] Orson Welles,[42] Andrei Tarkovsky,[43] Martin Scorsese,[44] Werner Herzog,[45] Theo Angelopoulos[46] and many others.

Filmography

Lost films (except where noted)

  • 1923: The Resurrection of Love (Ai ni yomigaeru hi)
  • 1923: Hometown (Kokyō)
  • 1923: Dreams of Youth (Seishun no yumeji)
  • 1923: City of Desire (Joen no chimata)
  • 1923: Song of Failure (Haisan no uta wa kanashi)
  • 1923: 813: The Adventures of Arsène Lupin (813)
  • 1923: Foggy Harbour (Kiri no minato)
  • 1923: The Night (Yoru)
  • 1923: In the Ruins (Haikyo no naka)
  • 1923: Blood and Soul (Chi to rei)
  • 1923: Song of the Mountain Pass (Tōge no uta)
  • 1924: The Sad Idiot (Kanashiki hakuchi)
  • 1924: Death at Dawn (Aka tsuki no shi)
  • 1924: Queen of Modern Times (Gendai no joō)
  • 1924: Strong is the Female (Jose wa tsuyoshi)
  • 1924: This Dusty World (Jinkyō)
  • 1924: Turkeys in a Row (Shichimenchō no yukue)
  • 1924: The Death of a Police Officer (Itō junsa no shi) co-direction
  • 1924: Chronicle of the May Rain (Samidare zōshi)
  • 1924: Love-Breaking Axe (Koi o tatsu ono) co-direction
  • 1924: Kanraku no onna (A Woman of Pleasure)
  • 1924: Queen of the Circus (Kyokubadan no Jo)
  • 1925: Ah, Special Battleship Kanto (Ā tokumukan Kanto) co-direction
  • 1925: Uchien Puchan
  • 1925: Out of College (Gakusō o idete)
  • 1925: The Earth Smiles: Part 1 (Daichi wa hohoemu: Daiichibu)
  • 1925: The White Lily Laments (Shirayuki wa nageku)
  • 1925: Shining in the Red Sunset (Akai yūki ni terasarete)
  • 1925: The Song of Home (Furusato no uta) Earliest extant film
  • 1925: Street Sketches (Shōhin eigashū: Machi no suketchi) co-direction
  • 1925: Human Being (Ningen)
  • 1925: General Nogi and Kuma-San (Nogi Taisho to Kuma-San)
  • 1926: The Copper Coin King (Dōkaō)
  • 1926: A Paper Doll's Whisper of Spring (Kaminingyō haru no sasayaki)
  • 1926: My Faultn New Version (Shinsetsu ono ga tsumi)
  • 1926: Passion of a Woman Teacher (Kyōren no onna shishō)
  • 1926: The Boy of the Sea (Kaikoku danji)
  • 1926: Money (Kane)
  • 1927: The Imperial Grace (Kōon)
  • 1927: The Cuckoo (Jihishinchō)
  • 1928: A Man's Life: Money is Everything in Life (Hito no isshō: Jinsei banji kane no maki)
  • 1928: A Man's Life: This Floating World is Hard (Hito no isshō: Ukiyo wa tsurai ne no maki)
  • 1928: A Man's Life: Bear and Tiger Meet Again (Hito no isshō: Kuma to tora saikai no maki)
  • 1928: My Lovely Daughter (Musume kawaiya)
  • 1929: Bridge of Japan (Nihonbashi)
  • 1929: The Morning Sun Shines (Asahi wa kagayaku) co-direction Few minutes preserved
  • 1929: Tokyo March (Tōkyō kōshinkyoku) Few minutes preserved
  • 1929: Metropolitan Symphony (Tokai kokyōkyoku)
  • 1930: Hometown (Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato) Extant film
  • 1930: Okichi, Mistress of a Foreigner (Tōjin Okichi) Few minutes preserved
  • 1931: And Yet They Go On (Shikamo karera wa yuku)
  • 1932: The Man of the Moment (Toki no ujigami)
  • 1932: The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia (Manmō kenkoku no reimei)
  • 1933: The Water Magician (Taki no shiraito) Extant film
  • 1933: Gion Festival (Gion matsuri)
  • 1934: The Jinpu Group (Jimpūren)
  • 1934: The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate (Aizō tōge)

Extant films (except where noted)

Home media releases (English subtitled)

  • Late Mizoguchi (Oyū-sama, Ugetsu monogatari, Gion bayashi, Sanshō dayū, Uwasa no onna, Chikamatsu monogatari, Yōkihi, Akasen chitai) – Eureka! Masters of Cinema (region B Blu-ray)
  • The Mizoguchi Collection (Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, Utamaro and His Five Women) – Artificial Eye (region B Blu-ray, region 2 PAL DVD)
  • Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women (Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion, Women of the Night, Street of Shame) – The Criterion Collection (region 1 NTSC)
  • The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Zangiku monogatari, 1939) – Artificial Eye (region B Blu-ray), Shochiku Home Video (Region A Blu-ray), The Criterion Collection (region 1 NTSC DVD, region A Blu-ray)
  • The 47 Ronin (Genroku chūshingura, 1941) – Image Entertainment (region 0 NTSC DVD), UniOne Media (Region 0 NTSC DVD)
  • The Lady of Musashino (Musashino fujin, 1951) – Artificial Eye (region 2 PAL)
  • The Life of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna, 1952) – Artificial Eye (region 2 PAL DVD), The Criterion Collection (region 1 NTSC DVD, region A or B Blu-ray)
  • Ugetsu monogatari (1953) – Bo Ying (Region 0 PAL DVD), Eureka! Masters of Cinema (region 2 NTSC DVD, region B Blu-ray), The Criterion Collection (region 1 NTSC DVD, region A Blu-ray)
  • Chikamatsu monogatari (1954) - Eureka! Masters of Cinema (region 2 NTSC DVD)
  • Talking Silents 1 (The Water Magician, Tokyo March) – Digital MEME (region 2 NTSC DVD)
  • Talking Silents 2 (The Downfall of Osen, Okichi, Mistress of a Foreigner) – Digital MEME (region 2 NTSC DVD)

References

  1. ^ "溝口健二". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "溝口健二". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "溝口健二". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  4. ^ "The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi". Harvard Film Archive. 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Jacoby, Alexander (October 2002). "Mizoguchi, Kenji". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.
  7. ^ Sharp, Jasper (15 May 2015). "Kenji Mizoguchi: 10 essential films". British Film Institute. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  8. ^ Thomson, David (2010). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (Fifth ed.). p. 674.
  9. ^ Bogdanovich, Peter. This is Orson Welles (Revised ed.). p. 146.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Le Fanu, Mark (2005). Mizoguchi and Japan. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84457-057-7.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Andrew, Dudley; Andrew, Paul (1981). Kenji Mizoguchi: A Guide to References and Resources. Boston: G.K. Hall. ISBN 9780816184699.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Sato, Tadao (2008). Kenji Mizoguchi and the Art of Japanese Cinema. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781847882318.
  13. ^ Phillips, Alastair; Stringer, Julian, eds. (2007). Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts. London and New York: Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 9780415328470.
  14. ^ Thomas, Kevin (6 January 1997). "A Closer Look at a Japanese Master". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  15. ^ a b "浪華悲歌". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  16. ^ "浪華悲歌". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  17. ^ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
  18. ^ a b c "The Best Japanese Film of Every Year – From 1925 to Now". British Film Institute. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  19. ^ McDonald, Keiko (Winter 1982). "Form and Function in "Osaka Elegy"". Film Comment. Vol. 6, no. 2. pp. 35–44.
  20. ^ "Osaka Elegy". Time Out. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  21. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums". Chicago Reader. Chicago. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  22. ^ Macpherson, Don. "The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums". Time Out. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  23. ^ Dougill, John (2006). Kyoto: A Cultural and Literary History. Signal Books. ISBN 9781904955139.
  24. ^ Burch, Noël (1979). To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema. University of California Press. p. 243. ISBN 9780520038776.
  25. ^ "Six entretiens autour de Mizoguchi: Kawaguchi Matsutaro". Cahiers du Cinéma. Vol. XXVII. August–September 1965. pp. 5–8.
  26. ^ a b c Aru eiga-kantoku no shōgai Mizoguchi Kenji no kiroku [Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director] (DVD) (in Japanese). Asmik Ace. 2001.
  27. ^ Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (March 2018). "Kinuyo Tanaka's The Eternal Breasts (1955)". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  28. ^ Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene (2017). Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity. Edinburgh University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-4744-4463-7.
  29. ^ Freiberg, Freda (March 2003). "Utamaro and his Five Women". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  30. ^ McShane, Rod. "My Love Has Been Burning". Time Out. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  31. ^ Rivette, Jacques (March 1958). "Mizoguchi vu d'ici". Cahiers du Cinéma. No. 81.
  32. ^ a b Sharp, Jasper (2011). Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810857957.
  33. ^ "Yokihi". Viennale (in German). Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  34. ^ Jacoby, Alexander (26 August 2006). "Kenji Mizoguchi: The enduring relevance of a master of cinema". The Japan Times Weekly. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  35. ^ "大阪物語(1957)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  36. ^ Shindo, Kaneto (27 April 1976). Aru Eiga Kantoku - Mizoguchi Kenji to Nihon Eiga [A film director - Kenji Mizoguchi and the Japanese cinema]. Iwanami Shinsho (in Japanese). Vol. 962. Iwanami. ISBN 4-00-414080-3.
  37. ^ Mellen, Joan (1976). The Waves at Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema. Pantheon Books. p. 250.
  38. ^ "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time". British Film Institute. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  39. ^ "Kinema Junpo Critics' Top 200". MUBI. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  40. ^ "Kenji Mizoguchi Will Receive of Retrospective at Moving Image, 5/2-6/8". Broadway World. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  41. ^ Donald Richie (20 January 1999). The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Third Edition, Expanded and Updated. University of California Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-520-22037-9.
  42. ^ Welles, Orson; Bogdanovich, Peter (1998). This is Orson Welles. Da Capo Press. p. 146.
  43. ^ "Tarkovsky's Choice". Archived from the original on 2009-07-06. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  44. ^ "Martin Scorsese's Top 10 List". The Criterion Collection. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  45. ^ Cronin, Paul (2019). Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed. Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571336067.
  46. ^ Horton, Andrew (1997). "Angelopoulos, the Continuous Image, and Cinema". The Films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691011417.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kenji Mizoguchi.
  • Kenji Mizoguchi at IMDb

May 03, 2023
kenji, mizoguchi, 溝口, 健二, mizoguchi, kenji, 1898, august, 1956, japanese, film, director, screenwriter, directed, about, hundred, films, during, career, between, 1923, 1956, most, acclaimed, works, include, story, last, chrysanthemums, 1939, life, oharu, 1952,. Kenji Mizoguchi 溝口 健二 Mizoguchi Kenji 16 May 1898 24 August 1956 was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956 1 2 3 His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 The Life of Oharu 1952 Ugetsu 1953 and Sansho the Bailiff 1954 4 5 with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan 2 3 6 Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the golden age of Japanese cinema 7 David Thomson writes that The use of camera to convey emotional ideas or intelligent feelings is the definition of cinema derived from Mizoguchi s films He is supreme in the realization of internal states in external views 8 Orson Welles said of Mizoguchi He can t be praised enough really 9 Kenji MizoguchiBorn 1898 05 16 16 May 1898Hongō Tokyo JapanDied24 August 1956 1956 08 24 aged 58 Kyoto JapanNationalityJapaneseOccupation s Film director screenwriterYears active1923 1956Notable workThe Story of the Last Chrysanthemums 1939 The Life of Oharu 1952 Ugetsu 1953 Sansho the Bailiff 1954 Kenji Mizoguchi travelling through Europe 1953 Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early years 1 2 Film career 1 3 International recognition 2 Legacy 3 Filmography 4 Home media releases English subtitled 5 References 6 External linksBiography EditEarly years Edit Mizoguchi was born in Hongō Tokyo as the second of three children to Zentaro Miguchi a roofing carpenter and his wife Masa 10 11 12 The family s background was relatively humble until the father s failed business venture of selling raincoats to the Japanese troops during the Russo Japanese War 10 11 12 The family was forced to move to the downtown district of Asakusa and gave Mizoguchi s older sister Suzu up for adoption which in effect meant selling her into the geisha profession 10 11 12 In 1911 Mizoguchi s parents too poor to continue paying for their son s primary school training sent him to stay with an uncle in Morioka in northern Japan for a year 10 11 where he finished primary school 11 His return coincided with an onset of crippling rheumatoid arthritis 11 which left him with a walking gait for the rest of his life 10 In 1913 his sister Suzu secured him an apprenticeship as a designer for a yukata manufacturer and in 1915 after the mother s death she brought both her younger brothers into her own house 10 11 Mizoguchi enrolled for a course at the Aoibashi Yoga Kenkyuko art school in Tokyo which taught Western painting techniques 10 11 and developed an interest in opera particularly at the Royal Theatre at Akasaka where he helped the set decorators with set design and construction 10 12 In 1917 his sister again helped him to find work this time as an advertisement designer with the Yuishin Nippon newspaper in Kobe 10 11 12 The film critic Tadao Sato has pointed out a coincidence between Mizoguchi s life in his early years and the plots of shinpa dramas which characteristically documented the sacrifices made by geisha on behalf of the young men they were involved with Probably because of his familial circumstances the subject of women s suffering is fundamental in all his work while sacrifice in particular the sacrifice a sister makes for a brother makes a key showing in a number of his films including some of the greatest ones Sansho the Bailiff Sansho Dayu 1954 for example 10 After less than a year in Kobe however Mizoguchi returned to the bohemian delights of Tokyo Mark Le Fanu 10 In 1920 Mizoguchi entered the film industry as an assistant director at the Nikkatsu studios in Mukojima Tokyo 2 3 Three years later he gave his directorial debut with Ai ni yomigaeru hi The Resurrection of Love 2 3 Film career Edit After the 1923 earthquake in Tokyo Mizoguchi moved to Nikkatsu s studios in Kyoto His early works included remakes of German Expressionist cinema 2 3 and adaptations of Eugene O Neill and Leo Tolstoy 10 While working in Kyoto he studied kabuki and noh theatre and traditional Japanese dance and music 12 He was also a frequent visitor of the tea houses dance halls and brothels in Kyoto and Osaka 10 which at one time resulted in a widely covered incident of him being attacked by a jealous prostitute and then lover with a razor 10 11 13 His 1926 Passion of a Woman Teacher Kyōren no onna shishō was one of a handful of Japanese films shown in France and Germany at the time and received considerate praise 5 but is nowadays lost like most of his 1920s and early 1930s films 6 By the end of the decade Mizoguchi directed a series of left leaning tendency films including Tokyo March and Metropolitan Symphony Tokai kokyōkyoku 2 3 10 In 1932 Mizoguchi left Nikkatsu and worked for a variety of studios and production companies 10 The Water Magician 1933 and Orizuru Osen 1935 were melodramas based on stories by Kyōka Izumi depicting women who sacrifice themselves to secure a poor young man s education Both have been cited as early examples of his reccurring theme of female concerns and one scene one shot camera technique 2 6 which would become his trademark 14 The 1936 diptych of Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion about modern young women moga rebelling against their surroundings is considered to be his early masterpiece 15 16 17 Mizoguchi himself named these two films as the works with which he achieved artistic maturity 18 Osaka Elegy was also his first full sound film 19 and marked the beginning of his long collaboration with screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda 15 20 1939 the year when Mizoguchi became president of the Directors Guild of Japan 10 saw the release of The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums which is regarded by many critics as his major pre war 18 if not his best work 21 22 Here a young woman supports her partner s struggle to achieve artistic maturity as a kabuki actor at the price of her health During World War II Mizoguchi made a series of films whose patriotic nature seemed to support the war effort The most famous of these is a retelling of the classic samurai tale The 47 Ronin 1941 42 an epic jidaigeki historical drama While some historians see these as works which he had been pressured into 23 others believe him to have acted voluntarily 24 Fellow screenwriter Matsutarō Kawaguchi went as far as in an 1964 interview for Cahiers du Cinema calling Mizoguchi whom he otherwise held in high regards an opportunist in his art who followed the currents of the time veering from the left to the right to finally become a democrat 25 1941 also saw the permanent hospitalisation of his wife Chieko m 1927 10 whom he erroneously believed to have contracted with venereal disease 26 International recognition Edit Screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda Actress Kinuyo Tanaka and Kenji Mizoguchi visit Paris 1953 During the early post war years following the country s defeat Mizoguchi directed a series of films concerned with the oppression of women and female emancipation both in historical mostly the Meiji era and contemporary settings All of these were written or co written by Yoda and often starred Kinuyo Tanaka who remained his regular leading actress until 1954 when both fell out with each other over Mizoguchi s attempt to prevent her from directing her first own film 27 28 Utamaro and His Five Women 1946 was a notable exception of an Edo era jidaigeki film made during the Occupation as this genre was seen as being inherently nationalistic or militaristic by the Allied censors 18 29 Of his works of this period Flame of My Love 1949 has repeatedly been pointed out for its unflinching presentation of its subject 6 30 Tanaka plays a young teacher who leaves her traditionalist milieu to strive for her goal of female liberation only to find out that her allegedly progressive partner still nourishes the accustomed attitude of male preeminence Mizoguchi returned to feudal era settings with The Life of Oharu 1952 Ugetsu 1953 and Sansho the Bailiff 1954 which won him international recognition in particular by the Cahiers du Cinema critics such as Jean Luc Godard 2 Eric Rohmer 5 and Jacques Rivette 31 and were awarded at the Venice Film Festival 2 3 While The Life of Oharu follows the social decline of a woman banished from the Imperial court during the Edo era Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff examine the brutal effects of war and reigns of violence on small communities and families In between these three films he directed A Geisha 1953 about the pressures put upon women working in Kyoto s post war pleasure district After two historical films shot in colour Tales of the Taira Clan and Princess Yang Kwei Fei both 1955 32 33 Mizoguchi once more explored a contemporary milieu a brothel in the Yoshiwara district in black and white format with his last film the 1956 Street of Shame Mizoguchi died of leukemia at the age of 58 11 32 34 in the Kyoto Municipal Hospital 26 At the time of his death Mizoguchi was working on the script of An Osaka Story which was later realised by Kōzaburō Yoshimura 35 Legacy EditIn 1975 Kaneto Shindō a set designer chief assistant director and scenarist for Mizoguchi in the late 1930s and 1940s released a documentary about his former mentor Kenji Mizoguchi The Life of a Film Director 26 as well as publishing a book on him in 1976 36 Already with his autobiographical debut film Story of a Beloved Wife 1951 Shindō had paid reference to Mizoguchi in the shape of the character Sakaguchi 37 a director who nurtures a young aspiring screenwriter Mizoguchi s films have regularly appeared in best film polls such as Sight amp Sound s The 100 Greatest Films of All Time Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff 38 and Kinema Junpo s Kinema Junpo Critics Top 200 The Life of Oharu Ugetsu and The Crucified Lovers 39 A retrospective of his 30 extant films presented by the Museum of the Moving Image and the Japan Foundation toured several American cities in 2014 40 Among the directors who have admired Mizoguchi s work are Akira Kurosawa 41 Orson Welles 42 Andrei Tarkovsky 43 Martin Scorsese 44 Werner Herzog 45 Theo Angelopoulos 46 and many others Filmography EditLost films except where noted 1923 The Resurrection of Love Ai ni yomigaeru hi 1923 Hometown Kokyō 1923 Dreams of Youth Seishun no yumeji 1923 City of Desire Joen no chimata 1923 Song of Failure Haisan no uta wa kanashi 1923 813 The Adventures of Arsene Lupin 813 1923 Foggy Harbour Kiri no minato 1923 The Night Yoru 1923 In the Ruins Haikyo no naka 1923 Blood and Soul Chi to rei 1923 Song of the Mountain Pass Tōge no uta 1924 The Sad Idiot Kanashiki hakuchi 1924 Death at Dawn Aka tsuki no shi 1924 Queen of Modern Times Gendai no joō 1924 Strong is the Female Jose wa tsuyoshi 1924 This Dusty World Jinkyō 1924 Turkeys in a Row Shichimenchō no yukue 1924 The Death of a Police Officer Itō junsa no shi co direction 1924 Chronicle of the May Rain Samidare zōshi 1924 Love Breaking Axe Koi o tatsu ono co direction 1924 Kanraku no onna A Woman of Pleasure 1924 Queen of the Circus Kyokubadan no Jo 1925 Ah Special Battleship Kanto A tokumukan Kanto co direction 1925 Uchien Puchan 1925 Out of College Gakusō o idete 1925 The Earth Smiles Part 1 Daichi wa hohoemu Daiichibu 1925 The White Lily Laments Shirayuki wa nageku 1925 Shining in the Red Sunset Akai yuki ni terasarete 1925 The Song of Home Furusato no uta Earliest extant film 1925 Street Sketches Shōhin eigashu Machi no suketchi co direction 1925 Human Being Ningen 1925 General Nogi and Kuma San Nogi Taisho to Kuma San 1926 The Copper Coin King Dōkaō 1926 A Paper Doll s Whisper of Spring Kaminingyō haru no sasayaki 1926 My Faultn New Version Shinsetsu ono ga tsumi 1926 Passion of a Woman Teacher Kyōren no onna shishō 1926 The Boy of the Sea Kaikoku danji 1926 Money Kane 1927 The Imperial Grace Kōon 1927 The Cuckoo Jihishinchō 1928 A Man s Life Money is Everything in Life Hito no isshō Jinsei banji kane no maki 1928 A Man s Life This Floating World is Hard Hito no isshō Ukiyo wa tsurai ne no maki 1928 A Man s Life Bear and Tiger Meet Again Hito no isshō Kuma to tora saikai no maki 1928 My Lovely Daughter Musume kawaiya 1929 Bridge of Japan Nihonbashi 1929 The Morning Sun Shines Asahi wa kagayaku co direction Few minutes preserved 1929 Tokyo March Tōkyō kōshinkyoku Few minutes preserved 1929 Metropolitan Symphony Tokai kokyōkyoku 1930 Hometown Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato Extant film 1930 Okichi Mistress of a Foreigner Tōjin Okichi Few minutes preserved 1931 And Yet They Go On Shikamo karera wa yuku 1932 The Man of the Moment Toki no ujigami 1932 The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia Manmō kenkoku no reimei 1933 The Water Magician Taki no shiraito Extant film 1933 Gion Festival Gion matsuri 1934 The Jinpu Group Jimpuren 1934 The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate Aizō tōge Extant films except where noted 1935 The Downfall of Osen Orizuru Osen 1935 Oyuki the Virgin マリヤのお雪 Mariya no Oyuki 1935 The Poppy Gubijinsō 1936 Osaka Elegy Naniwa ereji 1936 Sisters of the Gion Gion no kyōdai 1937 The Straits of Love and Hate 愛怨峡 Aien kyō 1938 Song of the Camp Roei no uta 1939 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums Zangiku monogatari 1940 A Woman of Osaka Naniwa onna Lost film 1941 The Life of an Actor Geidō Ichidai Otoko 1941 42 The 47 Ronin a k a The Loyal 47 Ronin of the Genroku Era Genroku chushingura 1944 Three Generations of Danjuro Danjurō sandai 1944 Miyamoto Musashi 宮本武蔵 1945 The Famous Sword 名刀美女丸 Meitō Bijomaru 1945 Victory Song Hisshōka co direction with Masahiro Makino and Hiroshi Shimizu 1946 Victory of Women 女性の勝利 Josei no shōri 1946 Utamaro and His Five Women Utamaro o meguru gonin no onna 1947 The Love of Sumako the Actress Joyu Sumako no koi 1948 Women of the Night 夜の女たち Yoru no onnatachi 1949 Flame of My Love Waga koi wa moenu 1950 Portrait of Madame Yuki a k a A Picture of Madame Yuki Yuki fujin ezu 1951 Miss Oyu Oyu sama 1951 The Lady of Musashino Musashino fujin 1952 The Life of Oharu Saikaku ichidai onna 1953 Ugetsu Ugetsu monogatari 1953 A Geisha a k a Gion Festival Music Gion bayashi 1954 Sansho the Bailiff Sanshō dayu 1954 The Woman in the Rumor a k a The Crucified Woman Uwasa no onna 1954 The Crucified Lovers a k a A Story from Chikamatsu Chikamatsu monogatari 1955 Princess Yang Kwei Fei Yōkihi 1955 Tales of the Taira Clan Shin heike monogatari 1956 Street of Shame Akasen chitai Home media releases English subtitled EditLate Mizoguchi Oyu sama Ugetsu monogatari Gion bayashi Sanshō dayu Uwasa no onna Chikamatsu monogatari Yōkihi Akasen chitai Eureka Masters of Cinema region B Blu ray The Mizoguchi Collection Osaka Elegy Sisters of the Gion The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum Utamaro and His Five Women Artificial Eye region B Blu ray region 2 PAL DVD Kenji Mizoguchi s Fallen Women Osaka Elegy Sisters of the Gion Women of the Night Street of Shame The Criterion Collection region 1 NTSC The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum Zangiku monogatari 1939 Artificial Eye region B Blu ray Shochiku Home Video Region A Blu ray The Criterion Collection region 1 NTSC DVD region A Blu ray The 47 Ronin Genroku chushingura 1941 Image Entertainment region 0 NTSC DVD UniOne Media Region 0 NTSC DVD The Lady of Musashino Musashino fujin 1951 Artificial Eye region 2 PAL The Life of Oharu Saikaku ichidai onna 1952 Artificial Eye region 2 PAL DVD The Criterion Collection region 1 NTSC DVD region A or B Blu ray Ugetsu monogatari 1953 Bo Ying Region 0 PAL DVD Eureka Masters of Cinema region 2 NTSC DVD region B Blu ray The Criterion Collection region 1 NTSC DVD region A Blu ray Chikamatsu monogatari 1954 Eureka Masters of Cinema region 2 NTSC DVD Talking Silents 1 The Water Magician Tokyo March Digital MEME region 2 NTSC DVD Talking Silents 2 The Downfall of Osen Okichi Mistress of a Foreigner Digital MEME region 2 NTSC DVD References Edit 溝口健二 Japanese Movie Database in Japanese Retrieved 6 October 2022 a b c d e f g h i 溝口健二 Kinenote in Japanese Retrieved 6 October 2022 a b c d e f g 溝口健二 Kotobank in Japanese Retrieved 6 October 2022 The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi Harvard Film Archive 2014 Retrieved 6 October 2022 a b c Jacoby Alexander October 2002 Mizoguchi Kenji Senses of Cinema Retrieved 6 October 2022 a b c d Jacoby Alexander 2008 Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors From the Silent Era to the Present Day Berkeley Stone Bridge Press ISBN 978 1 933330 53 2 Sharp Jasper 15 May 2015 Kenji Mizoguchi 10 essential films British Film Institute Retrieved 6 October 2022 Thomson David 2010 The New Biographical Dictionary of Film Fifth ed p 674 Bogdanovich Peter This is Orson Welles Revised ed p 146 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Le Fanu Mark 2005 Mizoguchi and Japan London BFI Publishing ISBN 978 1 84457 057 7 a b c d e f g h i j k Andrew Dudley Andrew Paul 1981 Kenji Mizoguchi A Guide to References and Resources Boston G K Hall ISBN 9780816184699 a b c d e f Sato Tadao 2008 Kenji Mizoguchi and the Art of Japanese Cinema Bloomsbury ISBN 9781847882318 Phillips Alastair Stringer Julian eds 2007 Japanese Cinema Texts and Contexts London and New York Routledge p 95 ISBN 9780415328470 Thomas Kevin 6 January 1997 A Closer Look at a Japanese Master The Los Angeles Times Retrieved 23 November 2010 a b 浪華悲歌 Kinenote in Japanese Retrieved 1 October 2022 浪華悲歌 Kotobank in Japanese Retrieved 2 October 2022 Anderson Joseph L Richie Donald 1959 The Japanese Film Art amp Industry Rutland Vermont and Tokyo Charles E Tuttle Company a b c The Best Japanese Film of Every Year From 1925 to Now British Film Institute Retrieved 3 January 2022 McDonald Keiko Winter 1982 Form and Function in Osaka Elegy Film Comment Vol 6 no 2 pp 35 44 Osaka Elegy Time Out Retrieved 2 October 2022 Rosenbaum Jonathan The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums Chicago Reader Chicago Retrieved 7 October 2022 Macpherson Don The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums Time Out Retrieved 7 October 2022 Dougill John 2006 Kyoto A Cultural and Literary History Signal Books ISBN 9781904955139 Burch Noel 1979 To the Distant Observer Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema University of California Press p 243 ISBN 9780520038776 Six entretiens autour de Mizoguchi Kawaguchi Matsutaro Cahiers du Cinema Vol XXVII August September 1965 pp 5 8 a b c Aru eiga kantoku no shōgai Mizoguchi Kenji no kiroku Kenji Mizoguchi The Life of a Film Director DVD in Japanese Asmik Ace 2001 Foster Gwendolyn Audrey March 2018 Kinuyo Tanaka s The Eternal Breasts 1955 Senses of Cinema Retrieved 8 October 2022 Gonzalez Lopez Irene 2017 Tanaka Kinuyo Nation Stardom and Female Subjectivity Edinburgh University Press p 14 ISBN 978 1 4744 4463 7 Freiberg Freda March 2003 Utamaro and his Five Women Senses of Cinema Retrieved 2 October 2022 McShane Rod My Love Has Been Burning Time Out Retrieved 8 October 2022 Rivette Jacques March 1958 Mizoguchi vu d ici Cahiers du Cinema No 81 a b Sharp Jasper 2011 Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema Lanham Maryland Scarecrow Press ISBN 9780810857957 Yokihi Viennale in German Retrieved 8 October 2022 Jacoby Alexander 26 August 2006 Kenji Mizoguchi The enduring relevance of a master of cinema The Japan Times Weekly Retrieved 8 October 2022 大阪物語 1957 Kinenote in Japanese Retrieved 8 October 2022 Shindo Kaneto 27 April 1976 Aru Eiga Kantoku Mizoguchi Kenji to Nihon Eiga A film director Kenji Mizoguchi and the Japanese cinema Iwanami Shinsho in Japanese Vol 962 Iwanami ISBN 4 00 414080 3 Mellen Joan 1976 The Waves at Genji s Door Japan Through Its Cinema Pantheon Books p 250 The 100 Greatest Films of All Time British Film Institute Retrieved 8 October 2022 Kinema Junpo Critics Top 200 MUBI Retrieved 8 October 2022 Kenji Mizoguchi Will Receive of Retrospective at Moving Image 5 2 6 8 Broadway World 11 April 2014 Retrieved 8 October 2022 Donald Richie 20 January 1999 The Films of Akira Kurosawa Third Edition Expanded and Updated University of California Press p 97 ISBN 978 0 520 22037 9 Welles Orson Bogdanovich Peter 1998 This is Orson Welles Da Capo Press p 146 Tarkovsky s Choice Archived from the original on 2009 07 06 Retrieved 2009 04 13 Martin Scorsese s Top 10 List The Criterion Collection 29 January 2014 Retrieved 8 October 2022 Cronin Paul 2019 Werner Herzog A Guide for the Perplexed Faber amp Faber ISBN 9780571336067 Horton Andrew 1997 Angelopoulos the Continuous Image and Cinema The Films of Theo Angelopoulos A Cinema of Contemplation Princeton University Press ISBN 9780691011417 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kenji Mizoguchi Kenji Mizoguchi at IMDb Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Kenji Mizoguchi amp oldid 1137077871, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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