Kenji Mizoguchi 1898-1956

Mizoguchi's career

Kenji Mizoguchi was born in Tokyo 1898. He was a son of carpenter. Due to difficult economic circumstances, his sister was sold as a geisha. The hard situation at home made him to quit school in the age of 13 and he went to study graphic arts. He first worked as an graphic designer in Kobe. Later in Kobe, he became actor.

Three years later, the mastermind in his twenties became a director, at the Nikkatsu Corporation and directed his first film Kokyo (1923) which cinematography was made by Tomozo Iwamura. The early works of Mizoguchi were often very quick productions. Mizoguchi worked hard in 1920's and was said to make over seventy films. Sadly most of these films don't exist any more. If you have a copy of these movies, please contact us.

The first real masterpieces from Mizoguchi were Naniwa Elegy and Sisters of Gion (both 1936). In these movies, Mizoguchi finds his target of passion - women. Naniwa Elegy describes woman called Ayako who becomes the mistress of her boss, Mr.Asai. Ayako's situation at home is hard, his father is in big debt and she wants to prevent him being sent to prison. She also attempts to help her brother to pay his university tuition. Sisters of Gion, which is a movie located in this famous geisha district in Kyoto, has a similar setting to Naniwa Elegy. Umekichi, a geisha, wants to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her, after becoming bankrupt of his divorce. However, younger sister of Umekichi does not go happy with this and tries to intervene.

Victory of Women

As in Naniwa Elegy and Sisters of Gion, often in Kenji Mizoguchi's films women have the leading role. Mizoguchi is often said to worship women in his works, often women sacrifice themselves for their love. Women are seen as a goddesses, as a symbol of human purity, which is seen to erase masculine impurity. Mizoguchi is worshiping and praising women, and also acknowledges the fact how women suffered through decades of pre- and postwar Japan.

But I think Mizoguchi didn't only feel compassion towards women, but sees women as a symbol of humanism. Often women characters sacrifice themselves in beautiful manner to help men, just like in his movie Taki no shiraito (1933). In this movie, independent young woman falls in love with orphaned carriage driver Kinya Murakoshi and wants to give him chance to study law in Tokyo, and gives him money, until one hard winter, work doesn't seem to materialize anymore. Taki no shiraito is so very realistic film, the realism hits you in the face with wet glove. As opposing to the cold realism, in his early works, his post war movies combined realism to harmony of womanhood.

This harmony culminates in Mizoguchi's work Victory of Women (Josei no Shori 1946). In this movie, which later became an important milestone of road to equality between the sexes, he releases his passion to praise and support women. The movie is said to be maybe most personal film by Mizoguchi. It could be that Mizoguchi deals with his own emotions related to his sister, who he never saw again after his father separated them. Also, his father was known to have a violent behavior towards her sister and mother. Mizoguchi's compassion towards the main character of Josei no Shori was very moving, and in relation to this heroine acted by Tanaka Kinuyo, the other characters are seen as somewhat distant, even the subject of this heroine's love, who was imprisoned because of his activity in liberal party. Often the women characters are well lit in foreground and everything else acts as a shadowy background. This represents the way how Mizoguchi adores beauty and purity of the women. It could be that even himself, Mizoguchi didn't realize this tendency of his movie making.

Tadao Sato states in his work Currents in Japanese Cinema : "With these strong, almost divine heroines, Mizoguchi's films became hymns to womanhood and he transformed a personal penchant into a universal, religious principle that transcended the simple, sensual aestheticism often associated with the worship of women."

Master of his art

Several of Mizoguchi's later films were the "tendency films" known as keiko eiga . In these films Mizoguchi took political approach to the subjects. But Mizoguchi's movies are somehow free from the current political situations. When comparing to Mizoguchi's works in 40's to American production, Mizoguchi handles topics very independently from the current era's political atmosphere. However, even Mizoguchi was forced to be involved in some kind of sublime war propaganda, the classic The Forty-Seven Ronin(1941) and Miyamoto Musashi (1944) are movies from this era. Although these movies are hard to swallow as a propaganda because they are so well made, I believe that the themes of these movies were hardly favorite to Mizoguchi, the worshiper of feminine beauty.

His postwar movies became well known abroad and his movie "Ugetsu (1953) got the Silver Lion in Venice Film Festival.

Color films, Tales of the Taira Clan (1955) and Princess Yang Kewi-Fei (1955) became his last movies, which were in fact only color films in his majestic nearly 100 movies production. Mizoguchi died in Kyoto of leukemia at the age of 58.

Mizoguchi preferred extremely long shots and very little movement of the camera. These long shots meant that there was a very little room for errors, thus the shots were strictly rehearsed again and again, before take.

See also: Kinuyo Tanaka, Victory of Women, Yasujiro Ozu.

Comments