Kenji Mizoguchi

Kenji Mizoguchi (溝口健二, Mizoguchi Kenji^?) (Tokyo, May 16, 1898 - Kyoto, August 24, 1956) was a Japanese film director. He is considered, for his mastery as a storyteller and for his technical mastery, one of the most influential directors of the 20th century.

He is ranked, along with Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Yasujirō Ozu, as one of the great Japanese filmmakers of all time. Critics highlight his influence on the history of cinema in the composition of sequence shots and in the editing of the scenes, although only approximately half of the 89 tapes he shot during his career have been preserved.

Biography

Youth

Mizoguchi was born in Tokyo in 1898. His family fell into poverty, despite his father's ambitions, after the economic crisis of 1904. His family had to move to the Asakusa neighborhood, the poorest in Tokyo. Her father, a former carpenter, behaves violently towards Mizoguchi's mother and also towards her daughter, whom he ends up selling as geisha .

Mizoguchi struggled as a student in school, and becomes an apprentice canvas painter. He becomes passionate about painting and gets a degree at a painting academy. He works as an advertising illustrator and also in a newspaper in the city of Kobe. In 1918, he participates in the violent riots that occur as a result of the influence of the Russian Revolution and because of this he loses his job.

He entered the film industry in 1920 as an actor at the Nikkatsu studios, although he soon became an assistant director. In 1922, he directs his first film The day love returned in which his socialist convictions are manifested, and which is censored by the government.

The Director's Career

Early in his career, he is a fast director, sometimes directing adaptations of Eugene O'Neill, Leo Tolstoy, or German Expressionist film versions. He thus made more than 70 films between the 1920s and 1930s, most of which were lost after World War II. His filmography from this period is marked by his commitment against the totalitarianism towards which Japan is heading and his interest in the problem of prostitutes, always present in his films. He founds the production company Daiichi Eida in order to maintain independence from him, but the production company will go bankrupt almost immediately.

According to Mizoguchi himself, his first serious film was The Sisters of Gion in 1936, with which he achieved significant public success. He is oriented from that moment towards a neorealism that helps him to analyze the transition of Japan from feudalism to modern times. She won the Ministry of Culture Award with The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, in which she explores the undervalued role of women in Japanese society. He develops his famous theory of 'one scene/one shot', aided by his highly competent assistant Hiroshi Mizutani who encourages him to use wide-angle cameras.

During the war, he will direct propaganda films for Japan's largest production company, Shochiku. He can be highlighted The Song of Victory , the most famous The Loyal 47 Ronins and The Bijomaru Sword that will free him from going to jail.

Reconnaissance after the war

After 1945, Japan enjoyed a movement for freedom, to which Mizoguchi was a privileged witness in his militant films in favor of women's suffrage, such as The Victory of Women and My Love Burns. At that time, he lived in fear of communist repression and left the Shichoku production company in 1950. From that moment on, he devoted himself more to directing melodramas that take up folkloric and traditional Japanese aspects together with his screenwriter and collaborator Yoshikata Yoda.

He began to be known in the West at the beginning of the 50s, especially thanks to the critic and director Jacques Rivette. His first film known in the West was Life of O-Haru, a Gallant Woman in 1952, before he was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival the following year for Tales of the pale moon. He was awarded again in 1954 for The Mayor Sansho and The Crucified Lovers.

His path will be followed by Yasujirō Ozu and later by Akira Kurosawa. More traditionally Japanese than his compatriots, Mizoguchi thrills with the subtlety of his poetry, which nevertheless does not hide the sleaze, through a black and white universe in which he was a true master.

Between 1953 and his death in 1956, all his films received a favorable reception from European critics and managed to have their own audience. Mizoguchi dies in Kyoto from leukemia at the age of 58. He is considered today one of the masters of Japanese cinema along with Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Masaki Kobayashi.

Between 1923 and the time of his death, he directed 89 films, only two of which were in color.

Filmography (partial)

• 1922 - The day when love came back (Ai ni yomigaeru hi)
• 1925 - Street scenes (Gaijo no suketchi)
• 1929 - Symphony of the great city (Tokai kokyogaku)
• 1929 - The march of Tokyo (Tokyo koshin-kyoku)
• 1930 - The native country (Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato)
• 1930 - Okichi, the foreigner (Tojin Okichi)
• 1933 - The magic of the water (Taki no shiraito)
• 1935 - Osen of the storks (Orizuru Osen)
• 1935 - Oyuki the virgin (Maria no Oyuki)
• 1936 - Elegía de Naniwa (Naniwa erejî)
• 1936 - Gion's sisters (Gion no shimai)
• 1937 - The Valley of Love and Hate (Aien Kyo )
• 1939 - The History of the Last Crysanthemum (Zangiku monogatari)
• 1941 - 47 ronin (Genroku chushingura)
• 1944 - SamuráiMiyamoto Musashi)
• 1945 - The Bijomaru sword (Meito bijomaru)
• 1945 - The Song of Victory (Hisshoka)
• 1946 - The victory of women (Josei no shôri)
• 1946 - Utamaro and his five women (Utamaro or meguru gonin no onna)
• 1947 The love of actress Sumako (Joyu Sumako no koi)
• 1948 - Women of the night (Yoru no onnatachi)
• 1949 - Burn my love (Waga koi wa moenu)
• 1950 - The portrait of Madame Yuki (Yuki fujin ezu)
• 1951 - Miss Oyu (Oyû-sama)
• 1951 - The Lady of Musashino (Musashino fujin)
• 1952 - Life of O-Haru, gallant woman (Saikaku ichidai onna)
• 1953 - Tales of the pale moon (Ugetsu monogatari)
• 1953 - Gion musicians (Gion bayashi)
• 1954 - The mayor Sansho (Sanshô dayû)
• 1954 - The crucified woman (Uwasa no onna)
• 1954 - Crucified lovers (Chikamatsu monogatari)
• 1955 - The Empress Yang Kwei Fei (Yôkihi)
• 1955 - The Priestly Hero (Shin heike monogatari)
• 1956 - The street of shame (Akasen Chitai)

Awards and distinctions

Venice International Film Festival