Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women (Osaka Elegy / Sisters of the Gion / Women of the Night / Street of Shame)
by Kenji Mizoguchi
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Isuzu Yamada, Machiko KyoDirector: Kenji Mizoguchi
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 299 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-21
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women (Osaka Elegy / Sisters of the Gion / Women of the Night / Street of Shame)
Movie Review: Japan's master dares to discuss the undiscussable
Summary: 5 Stars
Japanese cinema had three giants, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi. All three directors were famous for their fanatical perfectionism and instantly recognizable filming styles. But while Kurosawa and Ozu films are internationally renowned and routinely make greatest films of all time lists, Mizoguchi films are still rather unknown. Thankfully, Criterion is addressing this mistake, as it has released Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, and now this 4-DVD collection of films: Osaka Elegy (1936), Sisters of the Gion (1936), Women of the Night (1948), and Street of Shame (1956).
Why are Mizoguchi films not as famous as the films of Kurosawa and Ozu? Well, I think part of the reason is that Mizoguchi's films tackle deeply unnerving and uncomfortable themes and emotions. Mizoguchi's sister was sold to a geisha house, and all his life he frequented the "pleasure quarters." Most of his films concern the suffering and sacrifice of women, and there is something almost voyeuristic in his portrayal of misery, cruelty, and despair. Mizoguchi favored long uninterrupted takes with few closeups. At times his camera seems to act as a relentless observer of the dark side of life. The strong social messages in his films also occasionally borders on preachy. His films were renowned for their visual elegance and beauty, but they can be hard to watch.
The 4-DVD set, billed together as "Fallen Women," all concern women who have been forced to sell themselves in order to survive. Of the four films, the best one by far was also Mizoguchi's last film. "Street of Shame" is about the trials and tribulations of a group of prostitutes at a brothel in post-war Tokyo. The film was made at a time when Japan was debating whether to illegalize prostitution, and the prospect of shop closing looms over the film. The brothel's owner, a bland man simply called "Master," rails against the anti-prostitution law. But he is a distant presence in the film. The focus is on the women, who dress in kimonos and and clogs, but there is nothing the least bit elegant about their profession. They throw themselves at potential clients, coldly count their cash and debts, and chainsmoke, as if to escape from their misery. Yet each prostitute has her own distinct personality and story. In the 85 minutes there are moments of painful poignancy. The dumpy, middle-aged Hanae (Michiyo Kogure) works to support her infant son and ill husband. One of the most touching scenes is Hanae leaving work and quietly eating at a noodle shop with her husband and son. Yumeko (Aiko Mimasu) longs to see her grown son but at he same time is crippled with fear and shame. Their reunion does not go as planned. The young, pretty Yasumi (Ayako Wakao) is heartless and miserly, charging her fellow prostitutes interest for debts. She counts her cash compulsively, as she hopes to buy her way out of her occupation. Maybe the most memorable character is Mickey (Machiko Kyo), a brass, Americanized prostitute who wears tacky jewelry and hair extensions. When she gets an unexpected visit from her father, the scene is shocking. She drops her carefree act and years of anger and resentment spew from her face as she propositions her father. This film's candid portrayal of prostitution was influential in eventually outlawing prostitution in Japan.
"Osaka Elegy" is the first film of the series and resembles his later films like Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff in that the female character is entirely sympathetic. She's a young woman who resorts to having an affair with her boss to save her family's finances. Of the four films I recommend this film as the "starter" film in that it's less sensationalistic, and more quietly heartbreaking.
"Sisters of the Gion" is probably the best-known film in the set. It concerns two sister geishas, one who adheres to the traditional geisha values of discretion, tact, and companionship, and another who views her profession as a cold series of business transactions. Although this film is famous for its "inside look" at one of the most mysterious of professions, I find it somewhat cold and lacking the emotional impact of Mizoguchi's best films.
"Women of the Night" is different from Mizoguchi films in that it eschews his typical visual elegance in favor of a kind of gritty neorealism. It's postwar Japan, and as in many Mizoguchi films women (in this case, sisters) find themselves in a rapid downward spiral. "Women" stars the luminous Kiyuko Tanaka, who was for many years Mizoguchi's muse, as a struggling widow with a sick son. The other sister, Natsuko (Sanae Takasugi), is a "modern woman". Both of them get entangled in a relationship with a drug smuggler and descend into prostitution. There is a fairly graphic (for that time) depiction of rape and a gang beating, and frank talk of sex and pregnancy and drug use. It's a relentlessly grim, hard film to watch, but the performances are exceptional.
Although they are packaged together, I'd suggest watching these films a good distance apart instead of watching them all at once. This 4-DVD set shows Mizoguchi's greatness as a director but also, oddly, his inaccessibility. Kurosawa and Ozu's films are filled with profound and memorable moments, but we don't forget for a moment that they are also meant to be entertainment. They have moments of humor and fantasy. Not so with Mizoguchi. He seems determined to make the viewer suffer along with his characters.
Summary of Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women (Osaka Elegy / Sisters of the Gion / Women of the Night / Street of Shame)
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 male-dominated Japanese society. In these four lacerating works of socially conscious melodrama 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 economically and spiritually deprived by their nation's customs and traditions. With Mizoguchi's visual daring and eloquence, these films are as cinematically thrilling as they are politically rousing.This Mizoguchi quartet both anticipates and reinforces the director's other comfort-women classics, like 1952's The Life of Oharu. If the Japanese master would tackle larger-scale works in the years between, these intimate dramas hold their own. Opening jazz refrain aside, Osaka Elegy strikes a melancholy chord in its depiction of an office worker casually degraded by the men in her life. At first, Ayako (Isuzu Yamada) resists the advances of her married employer, but when the capacity to support her deadbeat dad and ungrateful brother becomes unmanageable, she relents, despite her interest in a more appropriate (if equally judgmental) suitor. Also from 1936, the Kyoto-set Sisters of the Gion concerns a cynical geisha, Omocha (Yamada), who tries to provide a better life for her subservient sister, Umekichi (Y?ko Umemura), even if she has to break several hearts--and even a few bones--in the process. What sounds like Tinsel Town-style melodrama plays out in a matter-of-fact, yet no less affecting manner in Mizoguchi's unsentimental hands.
In 1948's Women of the Night, the filmmaker returns to Osaka to focus on Fusako (Kinuyo Tanaka), a poverty-stricken widow who rebuilds her life after the war, then loses it all when her boss and sister betray her. Though Natsuko (Sanae Takasugi) attempts to make it up to Fusako, the situation only worsens once rape, syphilis, and pregnancy enter the picture (the liner notes indicate that Mizoguchi later dismissed this tough-minded movie as "barbarous"). His final film, 1956's Street of Shame, centers on a Yoshiwara brothel that operates like any other retail establishment. The most painful strand concerns an aging courtesan facing an Oharu-like future. Overall, these women look like survivors rather than victims, but Mizoguchi leaves no doubt regarding his frustration with a social order that would create and punish such steely characters. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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