Tribute to Kenji Mizoguchi 2017 / Oyû-sama / Japan 1951
Oyu is a young widow with a child, flattered by attention from Shinnosuke but unable to marry him because social propriety dictates that she should remain faithful to her late husband. So Shinnosuke seeks out and marries Oyu’s sister Oshizu instead and the three begin living together. The scandalous ménage à trois of Tanizaki’s celebrated novel Ashikari brings a certain wit to its account of the emotional manoeuvring between the three main characters.
Tanizaki’s celebrated novel Ashikari (also known as The Reed Cutter) proved hard to adapt in 1951 because it centres on a scandalous ménage à trois, and Mizoguchi declared himself dissatisfied with the result. But the film boasts another excellent performance from Tanaka Kinuyo, and it brings a certain wit to its account of the emotional manoeuvring between the three main characters. Oyu is a young widow with a child, flattered by attention from Shinnosuke but unable to marry him because social propriety dictates that she should remain faithful to her late husband. So Shinnosuke seeks out and marries Oyu’s sister Oshizu instead and the three begin living together. This was Mizoguchi’s first film with the great cinematographer Miyagawa Kazuo, who went on to shoot all but one of Mizoguchi’s last eight films at the Daiei company, and he succeeds in giving the images the quality of a half-remembered idyll.
Tony Rayns
95 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
/ Screenplay Yoshikata Yoda podle novely / based on the novel The Reed Cutter by Junichiro Tanizaki
/ Dir. of Photography Kazuo Miyagawa
/ Music Fumio Hayasaka
/ Editor Mitsuzo Miyata
/ Art Director Hiroshi Mizutani
/ Producer Masaichi Nagata
/ Production Daiei, Kyoto
/ Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Nobuko Otowa, Yuji Hori, Eijiro Yanagi, Eitaro Shindo
/ Sales Kadokawa Corporation
/ Contact The Japan Foundation
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Kadokawa Corporation
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E-mail: [email protected]
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