Mizoguchi Film Series
February 21
Mizoguchi Film Series
Miller Theatre, Columbia University (116th St. and Broadway)
6:00 PM
Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi (1953, 96 min.)
Original stories by Ueda Akinari and Guy de Maupassant. Screenplay: Yoshikata Yoda. Photography: Kazuo Miyagawa. Music: Fumio Hayasaka. With Kinuyo Tanaka, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Sakae Ozawa, and Mitsuko Mito.
A complex and beautifully wrought fable of the perils of greed and ambition, set during the civil wars of 16th-century Japan. A village potter and his neighbor go off to Kyoto to peddle their wares and are seduced by the attractions of the city and by the ease with which they can prosper. When rampaging armies loot their village, the potter is more concerned with protecting his profits than his own family. The potter falls under the spell of a beautiful ghost-woman, and only his harrowing escape from her clutches brings him to his senses. He rushes home to discover that his family has perished. His neighbor, smitten with the lure of military glory succeeds through fraud to secure a high rank, only to be brought down by the discovery that his wife has become a prostitute. One of the most famous and best loved of all Japanese films, Ugetsu has been listed by many international critics among “the best films of all time.” Among its many awards are the Silver Lion and Film Critics’ Prize at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.
8:00 PM
A Geisha (Gion bayashi)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi (1953, 87 min.)
Screenplay: Yoshikata Yoda. Photography: Kazuo Miyagawa. Music: Ichiro Saito. With Michiyo Kogure and Ayako Wakao
In part a reworking of Mizoguchi’s 1936 film, Sisters of the Gion, the present film depicts the relationship of two geisha in postwar Kyoto. Miyoharu, slightly past her prime, is loved by a younger man who is squandering his family’s fortune on her. Eiko, a younger geisha, asks Miyoharu to train her. The older woman, impressed by Eiko’s beauty and talent, arranges for her debut, using money borrowed from a wealthy businessman. When Eiko rejects the advances of this patron, he angrily has both women blacklisted in Kyoto’s teahouses. The ban is lifted only when Miyoharu agrees to sleep with an unwanted suitor, while urging Eiko not to follow in her footsteps.
Although Miyoharu was intended to be the central character, the picture was “stolen” by the young actress Ayako Wakao in the role of Eiko. She survived the severe criticism that Mizoguchi typically directed at all his actors, and exceeded even the director’s expectations. A Geisha launched Wakao as one of Japan’s greatest stars.
