Kenji Mizoguchi

[knives]

Any recommendations for someone who's generally left cold by Mizoguchi films? (seen Ugetsu, Sansho, Oharu, Osaka Elegy, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, and several titles I forget from the MoC box)

I think I remember you speaking highly of The Crucified Lovers, so I'll try and make it to that one at a minimum.

I'm generally in the same boat as you maybe even more so. The best I've seen is Utamaro and His Five Women or however it is titled though outside of style I don't think I could say anything about the movie (the style is amazing though). Street of Shame is good enough too.

[Michael Kerpan]

More literally -- Five Women Around Utamaro. I agree that this is an impressive film (which has typically been under-appreciated).

[ando]

Five Women Around Utamaro is my favorite Mizoguchi, though I think Ugetsu is a more well rounded film and an absolute classic. Its just that the subject of the artist making the most of his gifts amidst not always advantageous conditions is one of my favorites (Andrei Rublev is another superb example). At any rate the museum's showing of Five Women happens tomorrow night and I'm so pissed at not planning ahead. I'm stuck at work in Manhattan while it's playing during my lunch hour in Queens! Call in sick??? Tempting...

[Michael Kerpan]

Crucified Lovers is much more "well-rounded" than Ugetsu. ;~}

(In any event, there are parts of Ugetsu I love, and other parts I definitely don't love -- but I love all of CL).

Good luck getting to at least _some_ of the Mizoguchi films being shown.

[ando]

Got a buddy to take my shift so I'm there. Really, there was NO way I was missing this showing which comes around (even in New York) every ten years - if that. I've never seen a great print of Five Women, particularly that opening sequence. It's a wash out in every version I've ever seen. But I won't carp - I'm psyched about finally getting to see it in a theater.

Crucified Lovers, which I've never seen, looks like another must see. Apparently, the weekend screenings (Sat/Sun) are free with admission on a first come/first served basis.

[ando]

If you can, try to make a trip to Astoria, Queens for this retrospective. Give yourself an hour before the screening to take in the museum exhibits. I was continually stunned at how unwieldy some of the early film equiptment must have been - and heavy, my God. Some of those early cameras were made in cast iron! And those lights... must have required two or three people to just to maneuver one in place, much less an entire set. Small wonder so many of those lots burned down.

As for Mizoguchi, the 35 mm experience in a full house, as you might imagine, provides another level of appreciation. What seems merely maudlin or melodramatic in Utamaro on a small screen or a laptop/android device, for example, particularly the ending, is actually operatic in a large theater: it plays that strongly and effectively. I was genuinely surprised. Just wish screenings of his stuff came round more often.

[Michael Kerpan]

Just wish screenings of his stuff came round more often.

Just thank your lucky stars they happen at all! ;~}

[ando]

Bah. We can do better than that. Mizoguchi Week, for starters...

Bard College (in New York but up the Hudson a bit) apparently had a retro last year- cool poster.

Same folks (NFC and Japan Foundation) are behind all these exhibitions.

[Michael Kerpan]

I note that some incomplete/abbreviated films aren't included (for instance, Tôkyô kôshinkyoku) -- but otherwise this looks like everything.

[YnEoS]

Excellent new article on Mizoguchi from David Bordwell.

[Michael Kerpan]

Excellent new article on Mizoguchi from David Bordwell.

Indeed!

[ando]

Agreed. I love close readings of this kind. Here's an interesting review of Mark Le Fanu's Mizoguchi and Japan (that I've been toting with me), where Freda Freiberg discusses both Le Fanu's and Bordwell's approach to the filmmaker.

On tap tonight at The Museum:



May brave the threatening monsoon for this one.

[Michael Kerpan]

My recollection of the Le Fanu book is that it mostly ranged between mediocre and somewhat poor.

[ando]

Know of better one written in English? Perhaps you could give it a go.

[Michael Kerpan]

If you go to the very botton of Bordwell's essay, you will find a list of Mizoguchi resources. Unfortunately, by the time I tried to find Keiko McDonald's Mizoguchi book, it wasn't finable (at an affordable price), so I have yet to read it. The best materials I have found in English are Kirihara's Patterns of Time and the various chapters and blog posts by Bordwell. The problematic translation of Sato's book is probably worth checking out, despite its issues. After you have checked these out, then look at Le Fanu, if you like.

I really need to find out which of the French books are most useful (Two of my most useful books on Ozu and Naruse are in French).

[ando]

No, I meant perhaps you could write one. Thanks for the references, though as I mentioned, I already own the Le Fanu.

[Michael Kerpan]

Not every book _I_ tote with me actually gets read.... ;~} (Currently toting the VERY heavy Piketty book on Capital -- trying to read it as fast as possible lest I eventually develop some sort of sprain or strain).

I have mixed (to negative) feelings about Mizoguchi as a person, which might make it hard for me to write anything comprehenssive about him. But I can certainly be enthusiastic about many of his fuilms, on a case-by case basis.

I would rather do a book on Shimizu or Shimazu or Imai or Uchida -- who are all far more unknown.

[Drucker]

Not every book _I_ tote with me actually gets read.... ;~} (Currently toting the VERY heavy Piketty book on Capital -- trying to read it as fast as possible lest I eventually develop some sort of sprain or strain).

I haven't read it yet, but from what I understand

Spoiler

Capitalism wins. People lose.

[Michael Kerpan]

Correct -- unless one _does_ something to interfere.

Going back to Mizoguchi. I'll be happy to field any random questions (for what it's worth).

[Gregory]

Worth noting, and not mentioned in Bordwell's guide to materials, is the BFI Film Classics volume on Sansho Dayu by Dudley Andrew (author of Kenji Mizoguchi, a Guide to References and Resources) and Carole Cavanaugh.
(Sadly there have been extremely few entries in that series on Japanese films. Seven Samurai and In the Realm of the Senses were two others—both by Joan Mellen. )

[whaleallright]

the BFI Sansho Dayu book is good (Cavanaugh's half especially), and Donald Kirihara's book on Mizoguchi's 1930s films has its merits (it's a fairly rigorous formal study, not a breezy read).

surprised no one's taken on Ozu for the BFI series (I'm sure a Tokyo Story volume would be welcome). perhaps no one feels there is much left to say after Richie and Bordwell.

[Michael Kerpan]

Worth noting, and not mentioned in Bordwell's guide to materials, is the BFI Film Classics volume on Sansho Dayu by Dudley Andrew (author of Kenji Mizoguchi, a Guide to References and Resources) and Carole Cavanaugh.
(Sadly there have been extremely few entries in that series on Japanese films. Seven Samurai and In the Realm of the Senses were two others—both by Joan Mellen. )

Also BFI volumes on Throne of Blood (Watson), Spirited Away (Osmond), Actor's Revenge (Breakwell). A rather quirky selection of titles.

BFI doesn't tackle Ozu, but Cambridge Film Handbooks has a volume on Tokyo Story (Desser). Probably LOTS more can be said about Tokyo Story (and Ozu), but I don't imagine publishers would see much need.

[Michael Kerpan]

Saw Yoshie Fujiwara's Hometown tonight -- thus completing (at long last) my traversal of the complete surviving films of Mizoguchi. Not a major work (but important as an early experiment in Japanese sound film -- part talkie, part non-talkie with music and sound effects, circulated originally with a set of accompanying phonograph records). More interesting to me was some particularly wild cinematography (experimental shaky-cam) -- and a party scene VERY reminiscent of a similar scene in Lubitsch's So This Is Paris.

[EddieLarkin]

Michael, do you know of a list anywhere online which details precisely which Mizoguchi films survive and which are lost? Unlike with Ozu and Naruse, Wikipedia is pretty useless for this.

[longstone]

Michael, do you know of a list anywhere online which details precisely which Mizoguchi films survive and which are lost? Unlike with Ozu and Naruse, Wikipedia is pretty useless for this.

I would also like to see this and in addition does anyone know if there is a list anywhere of which titles are currently available on home video in English subtitled versions , for example I discovered 47 Ronin had an Australian release after I'd bought an inferior quality Korean DVD . thanks