Mizoguchi

I want to belatedly post a tribute to the great Kenji Mizoguchi, on the eve of his birthday and on the occasion of the essential ongoing series at the Museum of the Moving Image featuring virtually all of Mizoguchi's surviving films, the first such large-scale retrospective in New York since 1981. I remember attending the 1981 series at Japan Society and MoMA just a year after I moved to New York. That was the last time I saw many of the rare films in this series, and seeing them again 33 years later, in the context of re-viewing the more canonical Mizoguchi films (Ugetsu, Sansho, Oharu) which I have seen many times, is a revelation. In particular, I appreciate the importance of the great actress Kinuyo Tanaka to so many of his later films. David Bordwell's lecture and slideshow during the series' opening weekend also helped heighten my awareness of the master's visual strategies. My thanks to David Schwartz and Aliza Ma for organizing this magnificent retrospective, which will continue on to the Harvard Film Archive and Pacific Film Archive.

 Sansho the Bailiff

 

 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums

 

 The Life of Oharu

 

 Ugetsu Monogatari

 

 My Love Has Been Burning

 

Tales of the Taira Clan