Hailed by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu is an undisputed masterpiece of Japanese cinema, revealing greater depths of meaning and emotion with each successive viewing. Sisters of the Gion follows the parallel paths of the independent, unsentimental Omocha (Isuzu Yamada) and her sister, the more tradition-minded Umekichi (Yoko Umemura), both geishas in the working-class district of Gion. There's even a nifty little booklet with the literary source material, embellished with beautiful graphics. After World War II, Mizoguchi was inspired by Italian neorealism to make one of the most emotionally and visually raw films of his career. The Criterion box set _Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women_ gathers four equally compelling though more heavily didactic pieces, my favorite of which was _Street of Shame_. Submit. The Crucified Lovers) is an exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. One of cinematography’s finest talents, Kazuo Miyagawa shot many of Japan’s most celebrated films, including Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON; Kenji Mizoguchi’s UGETSU, SANSHO THE BAILIFF, and STREET OF SHAME; and Yasujiro Ozu’s FLOATING WEEDS. By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1954 • Japan Starring Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa One of a string of late-career masterworks made by Kenji Mizoguchi in the first half of the 1950s, A STORY FROM CHIKAMATSU (a.k.a. Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka. Summer Travels ... Search Criterion.com. The third film in the Eclipse set Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women has some years distance from the previous entry in the box, 1936's Sisters of the Gion.Damn, a whole war actually happened during the time from one production to the next, so it's fairly understandable that Women of the Night would be so tragic and bleak. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1954 • Japan Starring Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. The director, Kenji Mizoguchi's (1898-1956) elder sister was given up for adoption when the family encountered hard times. Restoration funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in association with The Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation. This commentary features Tony Rayns, a filmmaker, critic, and festival programmer with a special interest in East Asian cinemas. Moving between the terrestrial and the otherworldly, UGETSU reveals essential truths about the ravages of war, the plight of women, and the pride of men. Picture 7/10. Kenji Mizoguchi Quick Shop Street of Shame Kenji Mizoguchi Osaka Elegy Kenji Mizoguchi Sisters of the Gion Kenji Mizoguchi Women of the Night Kenji Mizoguchi Guts and Glory. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. FREE Returns. The film is presented in a new 1080p/24hz high-definition digital transfer. When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. As a professional film historian, I consider Mizoguchi Kenji to be one of the top ten directors of all time. This comprehensive documentary on director Kenji Mizoguchi was made by Kaneto Shindo in 1975. This is a gorgeous 2-disc set, and a … 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. Sansho the Bailiff (山椒大夫, Sanshō DayÅ«) (known by its Japanese title in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a 1954 Japanese period film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women Collector’s Set Quick Shop Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films Collector’s Set Quick Shop The Life of Oharu Kenji Mizoguchi Quick Shop Osaka Elegy ... Search Criterion.com. Amazon.com. The Criterion Collection releases Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Life of Oharu on Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this dual-layer disc. In the middle of a trio of Venice Film Festival award winners (1951’s The Life of Oharu; 1954’s Sansho the Bailiff) which solidified Mizoguchi’s international reputation and influential shadow on his country’s cinema, it is […] Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Masao Shimizu, Eitarô Shindô, Akitake Kono Director: Kenji Mizoguchi Screenwriter: Fuji Yahiro, Yoshikata Yoda Distributor: The Criterion Collection Running Time: 124 min Rating: NR Year: 1954 … WOMEN OF THE NIGHT is, as I recall, not quite up to the quality of the other three, but the other three are all … Ugetsu, also known as Tales of Ugetsu, The Tales of the Wave after the Rain Moon and Ugetsu Monogatari (雨月物語), is a 1953 Japanese romantic fantasy drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and based on stories in Ueda Akinari's 1776 book of the same name.It is a ghost story and an example of the jidaigeki (period drama) genre, starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō. Criterion’s spare but beautifully detailed restoration of A Story from Chikamatsu will hopefully allow the film to enjoy the attention that’s been accorded to other Kenji Mizoguchi masterworks such as Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff. At that point, he had already directed over 50 films, most of them fairly short pieces beginning in the early 1920s that now exist only in fragments. Saturday, October 6, 2012. The Criterion box set _Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women_ gathers four equally compelling though more heavily didactic pieces, my favorite of which was _Street of Shame_. Somewhat later she was sold as a geisha, affecting her brother's, and our director's, weltanschauung profoundly. Mizoguchi's film is a brilliantly shot, uncompromising look at the forces that keep many women at the bottom rung of the social ladder. A critical and popular triumph, Osaka Elegy established Mizoguchi as one of Japan’s major filmmakers. He was also privy to observing his father's brutal treatment of his mother and sister. A survey of the Criterion Collection on DVD by Jamie S. Rich. He was interviewed in Tokyo, in May 2005, about his work with director Kenji Mizoguchi. The first assistant director on UGETSU, Tokuzo Tanaka would later go on to direct several episodes of the famous ZATOICHI film series, starring Shintaro Katsu. Set in Tokyo’s Red Light District (the literal translation of the Japanese title), Street of Shame was so cutting, and its popularity so great, that when an antiprostitution law was passed in Japan just a few months after the film's release, some said it was a catalyst. Get info about new releases, essays and interviews on the Current, Top 10 lists, and sales. The director kept making movies in that time, including his … We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. One of a string of late-career masterworks made by Kenji Mizoguchi in the first half of the 1950s, A Story from Chikamatsu (a.k.a. The director of such classics as PALE FLOWER (1964), SAMURAI SPY (1965), and DOUBLE SUICIDE (1969), Masahiro Shinoda considers Kenji Mizoguchi’s UGETSU one of cinema’s crowning achievements. Sisters of the Gion follows the parallel paths of the independent, unsentimental Omocha (Isuzu Yamada) and her sister, the more tradition-minded Umekichi (Yoko Umemura), both geishas in the working-class district of Gion. Filmed on location in Osaka, Women of the Night concerns two sisters—Fusako, a war widow, and Natsuko, having an affair with a narcotics smuggler—who along with their younger friend Kumiko descend into prostitution and moral chaos amid the postwar devastation surrounding them. Buy Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women (Osaka Elegy / Sisters of the Gion / Women of the Night / Street of Shame) (The Criterion Collection) at Desertcart. • Osaka Elegy (Naniwa erejii, 1936) - Artificial Eye (region 2 PAL, Blu-ray); The Criterion Collection (region 1 NTSC) Amazon.ca - Buy Kenji Mizoguchi: Fallen Women: Eclipse Series 13 (The Criterion Collection) at a low price; free shipping on qualified orders. KENJI MIZOGUCHI'S FALLEN WOMEN: STREET OF SHAME - ECLIPSE SERIES 13 The final movie in Eclipse's Kenji Mizoguchi's Lost Women also turned out to be the last film the director made. See reviews & details on a … With its fluid cinematography and deft storytelling, Osaka Elegy ushered in a new era of sound melodrama for Mizoguchi. Classics and discoveries from around the world, thematically programmed with special features, on a streaming service brought to you by the Criterion Collection. THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS) is an exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. It runs 150 minutes and can be found on the second disc of the Region 1 Criterion Collection release of Ugetsu (1953). Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1952 • Japan Starring Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune, Masao Shimizu A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society, Kenji Mizoguchi had already been directing movies for decades when he made THE LIFE OF OHARU in 1952. Restored by The Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation at Cineric Laboratories in New York. I'm very grateful to the Criterion Collection for having put this excellent collection together. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. Movie plot Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai) is a 1975 Japanese documentary film on the life and works of director Kenji Mizoguchi, directed by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba). Mizoguchi's film is a brilliantly shot, uncompromising look at the forces that keep many women at the bottom rung of the social ladder. And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and fortune leads them far astray from their loyal wives. Samurai Cinema. Kenji Mizoguchi Ugetsu (Criterion) Sansho the Bailiff (Criterion) Mizoguchi: Volume One (MoC) Carlotta: Coffrets Kenji Mizoguchi Films sans Frontieres Cinema (French publication) Raro Video Digital Meme Mizoguchi on DVD Japanese DVDs Japanese Films Not on DVD Web Resources The Films of Kenji Mizoguchi - Michael Grost Both movies are found in Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women.) Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women (Osaka Elegy / Sisters of the Gion / Women of the Night / Street of Shame) (The Criterion Collection) Isuzu Yamada 4.3 out of 5 stars 29 By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil. Though a notch below Mizoguchi's best work, it's still very good, and Criterion… Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan A cornerstone of Japanese cinema, Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 masterpiece Ugetsu at last receives an updated transfer from the Criterion collection. Based on a classic of eighteenth-century Japanese … 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. This interview with Shinoda took place in Tokyo in May 2005. Soak Up the Sun. By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. FREE Delivery Across Greenland. Special thanks to Masahiro Miyajima and Martin Scorsese for their consultation on this restoration. Criterion did the most respectful, bountiful disc of extras, including a really lively set of interviews about Mizoguchi and his life. It was recorded in New York City in June 2005. ProductId : 4116538. An exquisitely made period fantasy from director Kenji Mizoguchi, Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, or "The Story of Ugetsu," 1953) was an artistically and commercially successful attempt on the part of Daiei Studios to repeat the international acclaim they had enjoyed with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon two years before. See more in our Cookies Policy. Submit. The director's often-used leading actress Isuzu Yamada stars as Ayako, a switchboard operator trapped in a compromising, ruinous relationship with her boss to help support her wastrel father. The 47 Ronin - The Criterion Channel The 47 Ronin 47 samurai avenge the death of their lord in Kenji Mizoguchi's take on the famous historical event. By using our site, you agree to our use of cookies. 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. With Mizoguchi’s visual daring and eloquence, these films are as cinematically thrilling as they are politically rousing. For his final film, Mizoguchi brought a lifetime of experience to bear on the heartbreaking tale of a brothel full of women whose dreams are constantly being shattered by the socioeconomic realities surrounding them.