Mizoguchi Kenji

Uncompensated Suffering: Images of Japanese Women

Mizoguchi’s Major WorksMizoguchi Kenji (1898 Tokyo - 1956 Kyoto)In the SILENT era

• Resurrection of Love (1923)

• Bridge of Japan (Nihonbashi, 1929)

• Cascading White Threads (Takino Shiraito, 1933)

Mizoguchi’s Major WorksIn the PREWAR period• Osaka Elegy (Naniwa Elegy, 1936)

• Sisters of Gion (Gion no Shimai, 1936)

• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Zangiku Monogatari, 1939)

Mizoguchi’s Major WorksIn the POSTWAR golden age

• The Life of Oharu (Saikaku Ichidai Onna, 1952)

• Ugetsu (Ugetsu Monogatari, 19553)• Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho Dayu, 1954)

• Crucified Lovers (Chikamatsu Monogatari, 1955)

• The Tales of the Taira Clan (Shin Heike Monogatari, 1955)

• Street of Shame (Akasen Chitai, 1956)

Osaka Elegy (1936)

• Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss, so she can pay her father‘s debt and her brother’s college fees. When she is abandoned by her benefactor, she turns to the street.

Sisters of Gion (1936)

• Umekichi and Omocha are geisha in Kyoto’s Gion district. The former feels obliged to help her bankrupt patron but the latter believes her sister is wasting her time and money on a loser and coward. Omocha’s view proves to be true but her pragmatism does not bring her happiness either.

The Story of The Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

• Kikunosuke, son of the famous actor Kikugoro falls in love with Otoku, the wet-nurse of his brother. This provokes the wrath of Kikugoro. He is allowed to perform on the condition that he has a clear break with Otoku.

The Life of O-haru (1952)

• Once a lady-in-waiting at the imperial court at Kyoto, Oharu fell in love with, and became the lover of, a man below her station. They were discovered, and Oharu and her family were exiled. For Oharu there followed a life filled with one sorrow and humiliation after another.

Ugetsu (1953)

• A potter is seduced by a wealthy noble woman and abandons his wife. When he comes to his senses and returns to his home, he is kindly received by his wife, who is but her ghost.

Sansho the Bailiff (1954)• In mediaeval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated. The kidnapped children grow up amid suffering and oppression. The sister sacrifices herself in order to liberate her brother.

Street of Shame (1956)• About lives of prostitutesin the days before pro-stitution are banned. Yasumi, the most beautiful and successful, manipulates customers; Mickey is an unsentimental rebel; Michi’e supports her sick husband and a new-born

baby; Yumeko supports her son but is ashamed of

her profession; Yori’e hopes to settle into marriage

but is betrayed by her ‘fiance’.

Images of Japanese Women• Mizoguchi’s chief thematic concerns consistently found in his films

His films reflect:

• (Expected) roles of women in society• Exploitation and abuse of women - the ‘second-class’ members of the society.

Images of Japanese Women• Ugliness of men who prey on women• Beauty of women who resist the power of men

• Women’s self-sacrifice (or forced self-sacrifice) for their family (parents, brothers and sisters, husbands, children, and lovers)

• Atonement brought for men’s sin or crime by women’s self-sacrifice

Images of Japanese Women• ‘… a commitment to feminism and progressive politics…’ Interpretation by Alexander Jacoby

• Are Mizoguchi’s films feminist and do they take a progressive political stance on issues of women?

• Comassion and sympathy towards suffering women; indictment against men’s cruelty, selfishness and violence

Images of Japanese Women• Female perseverance and self-sacrifice are made to look as if they were beautiful and virtuous acts

• Isn’t this the glorification of women’s suffering rather than denouncement.

• Female masochism• Doesn’t this lead to a tacit affirmation of the position and role of women?

Images of Japanese Women• The exploitation and abuse of women, young or old, are phenomena found in the both feudal and modern periods.

Where did these concerns come from?

• Mizoguchi’s upbringing and childhood

Life of Mizoguchi Kenji• Though born into a well-to-do family, Mizoguchi’s fortune changed when his father lost money in investment.

• Since then, the life of the family became as if it were the one in his films.

• His sister sent up for adoption and the adoptive family sold her to a geisha house

Life of Mizoguchi Kenji• His father ill-treated his wife and daughter and sometimes very abusive and even violent

• Mizoguchi violently disliked his father throughout his life

• His father refused to send Mizoguchi beyond primary school but with the help from his sister (geisha turned mistress of wealthy merchant) he managed to enroll in an art school.