“When the name Kenji Mizoguchi is intoned, every piece of camera equipment on earth should execute a deep bow. In the six films showing at Film Forum over the next two weeks in new 35mm prints, Mizoguchi’s gentle but unwavering camera nurtures and observes his characters’ often tragic lives with an emotionalism that is, paradoxically, as intense as any committed to film, yet free of melodrama.”
– Bruce Bennett, The New York Sun. Click here to read review

“If you have never witnessed the visual equivalent of perfect pitch, or understood how a single tracking shot can feel like a declaration of faith, here is your chance.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker. Click here to read review

“There’s more experience, more beauty and more elegant craftsmanship in these half-dozen pictures than most directors manage to get onto a movie screen in a lifetime.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times. Click here to read review

“Japan’s Kenji Mizoguchi is more than simply pantheonworthy (and superior to his better-known peers Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu.) He’s absolutely necessary.”
– Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

For sale at theater beginning September 8, and online now:

MIZOGUCHI AND JAPAN
by Mark LeFanu
VENDOR: BFI Publishing
Sale Price: $22.75 tax [$20.99 plus tax]

Masayuki Mori (Rashomon, The Bad Sleep Well, Floating Clouds) decides to go for the ryu and leave wife Kinuyo Tanaka (star of 15 films for Mizoguchi) behind to sell his wares in town, there to be seduced (“I never knew such pleasures existed”) by ghost princess Machiko Kyo (the rape victim of Rashomon). But when the spell is finally broken, he returns to a devastated village. The illusionary nature of ambition and desire is reinforced by the superb photography of Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Yojimbo) — “beautifully atmospheric, all long shots, long takes and graceful camera movements” (Donald Richie) — and powerful playing by the star trio (After Mori’s final scene of awakening, Mizoguchi, a no-smoking, actor-disdaining dictator on the set, personally lit up a congratulatory cigarette for the star). Adapted from Akinari Ueda’s 1776 collection of tales of the supernatural — and a De Maupassant story. Venice Silver Lion winner (UGETSU was Mizoguchi’s first Venice Silver Lion winner.) and for many years a regular on Ten-Best-of- All-Time lists. “The city marketplace, the headquarters of the samurai, Tobei’s visit to a shop to buy armor and a spear, Genjuro’s haste when he asks another merchant to watch his prized pots (for he must hurry after Lady Wakasa) — all of these create a feudal world in which life is hard and escape comes through the silly dreams of men. Women are more cautious, and there is a blunt realism in the sequence where Miyagi, left behind, tries to protect and feed their son as armies loot and rape the countryside. At the end of Ugetsu, aware we have seen a fable, we also feel curiously as if we have witnessed true lives and fates.” – Roger Ebert. “Ravishingly composed, evocatively beautiful . . . Its reputation as a landmark of the Japanese cinema has remained undented... Mizoguchi's establishment of atmosphere by means of long shot, long takes, sublimely graceful and unobtrusive camera movement, is everywhere evident.” – Time Out (London)
A JANUS FILMS RELEASE
1:15, 3:10, 5:05, 7:00, 9:00

“No one will ever make a better ghost story than Ugetsu. Moving from the personal to the mythic, and ultimately to a level of tragedy and acceptance that is unparalleled in film, Ugetsu’s story of a rural potter’s ill-advised wanderlust remains one of cinema’s greatest treasures.”
– Bruce Bennett, The New York Sun

“Still magisterial!” – Mike Atkinson, The Village Voice

“AN ALL-TIME CLASSIC! It encapsulates the director's exquisite style, a perfect match of breathtaking technique and heartrending performance.
A feminist minimasterpiece, tinged with ineffable sadness. DON’T MISS!”
– Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

“One of the most celebrated ghost stories in history.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

SEPTEMBER 15/16 FRI/SAT

SANSHO THE BAILIFF

(1954) In early Japan, the family of a disgraced aristocrat is attacked by pirates, with mom Kinuyo Tanaka sold into prostitution and her children Yoshiaki Hanayagi and Kyoko Kagawa enslaved. But while Hanayagi sells out, Kagawa remains human and yearns for escape. Shot by Kazuo Miyagawa, Mizoguchi’s adaptation of a famous legend is one of his most poetic works and his second Venice Silver Lion winner.
1:00, 3:20, 5:40, 8:00, 10:15

“Kinuyo Tanaka shatters your soul in Sansho the Bailiff.” – David Noh, Gay City News

“I have seen Sansho The Bailiff only once, a decade ago, emerging from the cinema a broken man but calm in my conviction that I had never seen anything better.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

SEPTEMBER 17 SUN

THE LIFE OF OHARU

(1952) Edo Period. Samurai’s daughter Kinuyo Tanaka is cast out for dallying with lower-class Toshiro Mifune (his only Mizoguchi appearance) and then it’s down, down, down — until in a subtly electrifying final scene the by-now aging hooker turns... Adapted from a classic novel by Saikaku, Mizoguchi considered this his own masterpiece. International Prize, Venice. “No director in the history of the cinema has so completely identified with the point of view of the woman.” – Andrew Sarris.
1:00, 3:35, 6:10, 8:45

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SEPTEMBER 19/20 TUE/WED

THE STORY OF LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS

(1939) A (Japanese) Star is Born, as a young Kabuki actor finds his only honest critic is a simple servant maid who eventually sacrifices all to make him great. Potentially a weeperoo, but due to strong performances (notably stage legend Shotaro Hanayagi, in his first film role), a rich evocation of an unfamiliar theatrical world and the ultimate expression of Mizoguchi’s one-scene, one-shot method (the dazzling camerawork includes a ten-minute take, leading into the emotionally devastating final montage). A Mizoguchi masterpiece and one of the great works of the 30s anywhere.
1:00, 3:40, 6:20, 9:00

“Kenji Mizoguchi’s grand, ambitious melodrama has the timeless poignancy of legend. This intimate story… is built on an epic framework…
Filming with a contemplative, dramatically exacting technique of long tracking shots that set the text as perfectly as a musical score,
Mizoguchi sustains a faith in art even as he tallies its unbearable real-life price.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“One of the Japanese master’s most feminist works is set in 1885 Tokyo, in a Kabuki milieu.
Mizoguchi felt he finally came into his own with this picture, a sentimental tragedy of great formal beauty.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

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SEPTEMBER 21 THU
(4 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION

SISTERS OF THE GION

(1936) In the Gion, Kyoto’s traditional pleasure quarter, siblings and geishas Yoko Umemura and the great Isuzu Yamada (later, Kurosawa’s Lady Macbeth) bring different attitudes to their work, the first traditional, the latter cynically modern — until Yamada’s smart mouth brings big trouble. The first true burgeoning of Mizoguchi’s long-shot, long-take, combined with subtle movement, style. His only film to win Japan’s Oscar equivalent.
1:00, 4:20, 7:40

“Per usual, Mizoguchi makes every shot count.” – Time Out New York

“One of the great director’s best early sound movies… [Stars a] fiery Isuzu Yamada.” – Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

STREET OF SHAME

(1956) The Japanese title is Akasen Chitai; literally, Red Light District. As rumors buzz about an impending anti-prostitution law, the lives of the hookers of Tokyo’s Dreamland brothel unfold — from bespectacled housewife Michiyo Kogure to yen-counting Ayako Wakao, to veteran period heroine Machiko Kyo’s raucously Americanized “Mickey.” Mizoguchi’s last film before his death from leukemia and a reputedly important influence on Japan’s anti-prostitution laws passed the following year.
2:30, 5:50, 9:10

“Yet another stunner from Japan's grandest womancentric director.” – Time Out New York

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