52-59 / BD 36-37, 71-72 Late Mizoguchi: Eight Films, 1951-56

[Tomas]

I was hoping that Sansho the Bailiff would be released separately and not as a part of the Mizoguchi box set. It just one of those films that I truly adore and wishing to get it in the best condition with lots of extras.

[peerpee]

We've got a Tony Rayns commentary pencilled in (not recorded yet), and we're planning on some serious extras for these boxsets. So please don't worry.

Suggestions for really thoughtful extras/contributors most welcome!

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

How about Audie Bock?

[Der Müde Tod]

How about Audie Bock?

My strained eyes misread this as "How about audio book", which I found an interesting idea, too: Include the audio commentary as an mp3 file so that one can listen to it separately.

[Matt]

Suggestions for really thoughtful extras/contributors most welcome!

Have you considered Mark Le Fanu?

[Michael Kerpan]

Suggestions for really thoughtful extras/contributors most welcome!

Have you considered Mark Le Fanu?

I hope not. His book was a major, major disappointment. Bland and poorly structured -- with few useful insights. (Keiko McDonald would be much better -- and so would David Bordwell -- on issue of visual style and form).

If they ever get around to earlier films, Donald Kirihara (Patterns of Time) might be useful. FWIW -- link to interesting article by Chika Kinoshita

[Steven H]

Regarding scholars, Keiko McDonald's might be someone to get a hold of, her essay compilation on Ugetsu is one of the best books concerning a single film I own (I haven't read her Mizoguchi, as it's long out of print and I haven't been able to track down a copy.) David Bordwell has some fascinating insights in his Figures Traced in Light on Mizoguchi.

Machika Kyo from Street of Shame is still alive, maybe she can offer some info? Also, Rohmer was/is a massive fan. An introduction or two by him would be very interesting.

Perhaps the NHK produced documentary film The World of Kazuo Miyagawa (parts of which were excerpted on Criterion's Rashomon DVD) has information about the lensing work he did with Mizoguchi?

[davebert]

I think a fan commentary would be pretty great. Actually, I intended that as a throwaway joke, but back in the day we had a discussion of make-your-own-commentary MP3 files, and a culling of the best bits from some of those might actually be an enjoyable contrast to a typical scholarly commentary.

[Scharphedin2]

A favorite extra of mine is the interactive career overview on the Criterion release of In the Mood For Love. It combines text biography/filmography with a variety of interview snippets, stills, trailers and excerpts from Wong Kar-Wai's films.

Something like that would be excellent on this (first) set of Mizoguchi films. Not only would it be a great way to place the films in the set in context within Mizoguchi's career for anyone less familiar with director's large oeuvre, if excerpts from future releases were included, it would also help encourage sales.

[the dancing kid]

The most compelling reading of Mizoguchi I've ever heard came from Michael Raine, although I think he was mostly relaying some of Sharon Hayashi's ideas about his films. Didn't she have an article about Mizoguchi and women in Camera Obscura awhile back? I can't find it in the online archive, but I'm almost positive it was her who wrote it. I'll make a note to ask him the next time I see him. Anyway, it concerned the "connoisseur of femininity" approach to understanding the role of women in Mizoguchi's films, as well as how the agency of masochism operates in Mizo's characters' relationships and how female devotion/sacrifice functions as a "gift".

Also seconding Chika Kinoshita, who I think has some really interesting things to say about Mizoguchi, particularly concerning sound and his wartime films. I think she's still a PhD student, but Mizoguchi is the subject of her dissertation. If you are planning on release 'Story of the Last Chrysanthemums' I would track down her essay on it (called "Floating Sound" or something like that). She also had an essay on the recent special issue on "Modern Girls" in Japanese film from CO, although I haven't read it yet. I think it's online.

If you're doing any of his silent films, or 'Osaka Elegy', Joanne Bernardi would probably be a good bet. She worked pretty closely with Yoda Yoshikita when she was doing her research on the "Pure Film Movement", so she might have some general comments of value about his working relationship with Mizoguchi as well.

I dislike McDonald's writings on Mizoguchi (and basically everything else). For me, she's part of the old guard of "Orientalists" who I wish would just go away. Mark le Fanu's book was pretty poor, so I would second skipping out on him. Bordwell is okay, but I think we all get enough of him as it is.

It might also be worth including the Rivette essay on Mizoguchi ('..Viewed from Here"), which I think is pretty hilarious and fun. It would be a great introduction if you're going to put a big booklet together ala the Naruse set. "Grasping the unknown through the unknowable" or something like that. There's also the old Robin Wood essay on 'Ugetsu' and 'Sansho'. It's in the reprint of 'Personal Views'.

[Steven H]

The most compelling reading of Mizoguchi I've ever heard came from Michael Raine, although I think he was mostly relaying some of Sharon Hayashi's ideas about his films. Didn't she have an article about Mizoguchi and women in Camera Obscura awhile back? I can't find it in the online archive, but I'm almost positive it was her who wrote it.

Here's a link to the Camera Obscura you're talking about (I think), titled New Women of the Silent Screen: China, Japan, Hollywood. I'm very curious to read this take.

I've enjoyed a great deal of McDonald's work (though prefer the Standish, Bordwell more meticulous approach), but one of the main reasons I can think of for involving her is her Quandt like middle of the road stances on "readings" in his film work (and he's a large part of why I'm glad I picked up Criterion's Pickpocket DVD). Her familiarity with a wide breadth of theories about his films could make for a more interesting and less distracting testimony, than say, a highly opinionated one.

I also felt her writings on Yoshida's Eros Plus Massacre, Ichikawa's The Outcast, Shinoda's Buraikan, Shimizu's "children films," and Yamanaka's Soshun Kochiyama were invaluable to me in discovering and understanding those films. Though I may be (ignorantly) gliding over the "orientalist" aspect. And even though we all get enough of Bordwell, he still has some valuable things to say about Mizoguchi.

[the dancing kid]

Here's a link to the Camera Obscura you're talking about

That issue is also available online.

CO keeps switching hosts, so it's hard to know what's available online at any given moment. My school's library still looks for their articles through Project Muse, which ended coverage in 2004 I think, so it doesn't always show everything.

That doesn't have the essay I'm thinking of though. Still a great issue though, especially for Naruse fans, so it's worth a read when you have the time.

But now I'm really racking my brain trying to remember where these ideas come from. The only article by Hayashi I can find online is "Goodbye Kitty, Hello War", and I know the Mizoguchi stuff is not from her dissertation (which is mostly on Shimizu as far as big names go), so I'm not sure where it's from.

[Michael Kerpan]

The only article by Hayashi I can find online is "Goodbye Kitty, Hello War", and I know the Mizoguchi stuff is not from her dissertation (which is mostly on Shimizu as far as big names go), so I'm not sure where it's from.

Do you know the name date etc of her dissertation -- as I would love to read something of substance about Shimizu.

[Steven H]

But now I'm really racking my brain trying to remember where these ideas come from. The only article by Hayashi I can find online is "Goodbye Kitty, Hello War", and I know the Mizoguchi stuff is not from her dissertation (which is mostly on Shimizu as far as big names go), so I'm not sure where it's from.

If you find it (the Mizoguchi article), I'd love to know more about it. Also, it's very heartening to read a post where Shimizu is considered a big name (all things being relative, I suppose.)

[the dancing kid]

Okay, so I re-read the CO issue, and it turns out the Kinoshita essay on 'Water Magician' is the one I was thinking about, not anything by Hayashi. So definitely check that out. It's a really good essay.

Do you know the name date etc of her dissertation -- as I would love to read something of substance about Shimizu.

It's called "Traveling Film History: Language and Landscape in the Japanese Cinema, 1931-1945," was completed in August of 2003, and the UMI number is 3097113. It was completed in the history department, not the CMS council (if that matters for searching). If you have trouble finding it, send me a PM and I can probably help you out.

[jt]

Suggestions for really thoughtful extras/contributors most welcome!

I imagine that this will be the first Mizo that many of the buyers have seen, especially in the UK, so an intro documentary would be very much appreciated. Something with Rayns and/ or some of the other names mentioned above would be perfect, especially if it were 45 to 60 min and in English. I can't imagine many people have sat through all 3 hours of the Shindo doc on the CC disc (and stayed interested throughout).

I for one don't have time to listen to all the audio commentaries I have, especially if they're not recorded in English, meaning I can't listen to them while doing other things. But I always watch intros and documentaries.

Nick, if you now have rights to 9+ of the films, would you be able to put together a doc using clips to explain some of Mizo's themes, camera/ story-telling techniques etc for not too much money?

I'd find a couple of shorter pieces like that and a commentary or two much more valuable than 5 commentaries, which I know I'd never have time to get through.

[jguitar]

The only article by Hayashi I can find online is "Goodbye Kitty, Hello War", and I know the Mizoguchi stuff is not from her dissertation (which is mostly on Shimizu as far as big names go), so I'm not sure where it's from.

Do you know the name date etc of her dissertation -- as I would love to read something of substance about Shimizu.

I just did a search on the ProQuest dissertation database: here's the citation info for the Sharon Hayashi diss. It looks pretty intriguing:

Traveling film history: Language and landscape in the Japanese cinema, 1931--1945 by Hayashi, Sharon H., Ph.D., The University of Chicago, 2003, 279 pages

I'd second the Donald Kirihara book if MoC release any Mizoguchi from the 30s--that's a wonderful book.

[Matt]

Suggestions for really thoughtful extras/contributors most welcome!

Have you considered Mark Le Fanu?

I hope not.

His book was a major, major disappointment.

Ah, haven't read it. I was just remembering all the anticipation for it.

[Anonymous]

David Bordwell, Robin Wood and Andrew Sarris have all written beautifully about Mizoguchi.

I hope the set will include GION BAYASHI aka A GEISHA, which isn't available elsewhere so far.

[pm]

David Bordwell, Robin Wood and Andrew Sarris have all written beautifully about Mizoguchi.

I hope the set will include GION BAYASHI aka A GEISHA, which isn't available elsewhere so far.

Agreed! Though mostly about Bordwell, who recorded a pretty good commentary for Nevsky.The format didn't seem quite right for his close analysis approach, but something akin to Tag Gallagher's essays on the Ophuls discs could be amazing.

And no one's mentioned Dudley Andrew yet. Although Mizoguchi isn't his main area of research, he wrote a very good book on Sansho, co-authored (with his brother, who teaches in Japan) a small book on Mizoguchi, and he introduced and discussed Life of Oharu at Boston's MFA not long ago, where he had an interesting digression about the place of Mizoguchi in postwar French film culture.

[DeathDealer]

do you know when this is coming out?

[125100]

Wow those Sansho screens look gorgeous, I'm definitely going to pick that film up!!!!

I'll probably import the Criterion though, I've had such bad luck with MoC so far...

(No booklet in Sunrise, Twenty-Four Eyes wouldn't play on anything (DVD Player, Mac or PS3) and my Metropolis case was so firmly shut it cracked when I opened it, probably my fault that one lol.

I am looking forward to Nosferatu and Diary of a Lost Girl though

[peerpee]

Sorry you've had bad luck. Missing booklets, faulty discs, and broken cases are rare -- but you can contact Eureka or myself to remedy anything like that straight away for replacements.

[125100]

Sorry you've had bad luck. Missing booklets, faulty discs, and broken cases are rare -- but you can contact Eureka or myself to remedy anything like that straight away for replacements.

Don't worry about it The Sunrise disc is fantastic, so although the booklet would undoubtedly be a nice extra I'm coping without. Borders happily refunded me for Twenty-Four Eyes and like I said Metropolis was probably my fault...

I've nothing against MoC though, you do a great job with bringing classic Japanese films like this to the UK (World) and I can't wait for Diary of a Lost Girl. Your upcoming Nosferatu will probably be a definitive version too so I'm counting down the days for that But for Sansho, well Criterion announced it first, I like their artwork, and my Criterion Collection is a lot bigger than my MoC one (Even though I have about a third of your releases mostly the early stuff though)

[Tomas]

Peerpee can you give us some more info about what will be in the first Mizo box set (number of movies, anything)?

I would also like to know if there are any future plans for more Sadao Yamanaka movies from MoC? =P~