#The Life of Oharu

[shihlun]

Kenji Mizoguchi

- The Life of Oharu

1952

[hiddenbyleaves]

The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)

[moviesiveseenandwanttoremember]

Kenji Mizoguchi’s “西鶴一代女” (The Life of Oharu) April 17, 1952.

[byneddiedingo]

Kinuyo Tanaka in The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)

Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichiro Sugai, Toshiro Mifune, Toshiaki Konoe, Kiyoko Tsuji, Hisako Yamane, Jukichi Uno, Eitaro Shindo, Akira Oizumi, Kyoko Kusajima, Masao Shimizu, Daisuke Kato. Screenplay: Kenji Mizoguchi, Yoshikata Yoda, based on a novel by Saikaku Ihara. Cinematography: Yoshimi Hirano. Production design: Hiroshi Mizutani. Film editing: Toshio Goto. Music: Ichiro Saito. 

Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka) is by turns a lover, a concubine, a courtesan, a servant, a wife, a prostitute, and a nun, which in the 17th-century Japan of Kenji Mizoguchi's film is almost everything a woman could possibly be. But Tanaka's great performance individualizes Ohara, keeping her from just being a representative figure, a stand-in for Woman. Over the course of the film, Oharu suffers almost every indignity that could be inflicted on her: At the court in Kyoto where she is a lady in waiting, she falls in love with a page, Katsunosuke (Toshiro Mifune), but when their affair is discovered, she and her parents are expelled and he is beheaded. One day a courtier for a powerful feudal lord comes to the village where they are exiled: The lord is in need of an heir, and his wife is barren. Oharu fits his rather exacting specifications to the letter, so she is brought to his palace where she bears him a son, but she's not allowed to nurse the child and is expelled from the household by his jealous wife. She goes to work as a courtesan to pay off the debts incurred by her greedy father (Ichiro Sugai), takes a job as maid to a woman who suspects her of sleeping with her husband, marries a man who is killed by robbers, and becomes a Buddhist nun but is expelled from the temple for supposedly seducing a man who was actually trying to rape her. Years pass and she loses her beauty and now walks the streets to earn money to survive, but she is subjected to scorn and mockery as a "goblin cat" by a man leading a group of young pilgrims. Hope dawns when she is summoned to meet her son, who has succeeded his father as lord, but it turns out that the officials in the court really want to cover up the fact that their lord's mother has been a prostitute, so she runs away after only a brief and distant glimpse of him. At the end she wanders the streets as an itinerant nun receiving alms in exchange for prayers -- her prostitution is now spiritual rather than physical. It's easy to take a synopsis like this and dismiss the story as "lachrymose as a soap opera," and "a reverse Horatio Alger adventure," as a particularly obtuse New York Times review did when The Life of Oharu was first released in the United States in 1964. It is neither of those things, of course. Even the Times reviewer was struck by Tanaka's performance, Mizoguchi's direction, and Yoshimi Hirano's cinematography, without understanding how or why these elevate the story into art. The story comes from a 17th-century novel by Saikaku Ihara, The Life of an Amorous Woman, a work far more erotic and picaresque than the melancholy screenplay Mizoguchi and co-screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda derived from it. The Life of Oharu is unremittingly grim -- it put me in mind of the novels of Thomas Hardy, whose characters suffer more than seems absolutely necessary for the author to make his point about the workings of fate. But the film is not about suffering; it's about strength, and women's strength in particular.  

[frnndlcs]

Saikaku ichidai onna, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952

[chthonic-cassandra]

tagged by @peachpulpeuse

Favourite colour: dark blue

Last song: "Merry We Roll Along" has been in my head incessantly

Currently reading: I tried to start both Victoria Goddard's Hands of the Emperor and Tiffany McDaniel's On the Savage Side and it turns out that I hate them both! So I am doing a Prydain Chronicles reread and vacillating about whether to try and finish either or just give up and return them to the library

Currently watching: the real answer is the LotR extended edition special features. I have Kenji Mizoguchi's The Life of Oharu out from the library so hopefully I'll watch that in the next few days

Currently craving: a lot of rest. also samosas and chai, which is the best snack

Coffee or tea?: tea tea tea tea tea

A hobby you would like to try: mostly I just want enough time and energy to practice the hobbies I already have. But, given infinitely more time and energy, I would like to learn to weave

An AU you're working on/thought of: Penny Dreadful evil stepsisters AU! That one I would theoretically actually like to write. There's also a few variants on Dracula with spies that are floating around in my head but haven't taken form. Relatedly, @asimplecreature put "The Americans in Attolia" in my head and I have no idea what the hell to do with it but now it's stuck there. She gets credit for that one though.

tagging probably too many people because I am tired and doing this somewhat at random: @mysikrolik, @awildwickedslip, @tomato-greens, @twitterpatedly-yrs, @kareenvorbarra, @child-of-hurin, @winged-cries, @alder-knight, @measureformeasure

[jpt3391]

The Life of Oharu

Dang. That movie was one of the saddest movies I have ever watched. The atmosphere that Mizoguchi created of a lady in the 1600s who had fallen from grace, may be exaggerated a bit, but still holds applicable to how many of the women during that time were treated. Even his own sister, who we talked about the class before, was sold off by her father which I can only imagine the effect that had on him and the future works that he would create. It really puts into perspective the hardships that women had to face throughout their lives and how the patriarchal society functioned. From her father, to her “lovers”, and to the other men that she had to face, every part that brought her problems was because of men and how they viewed women as property, rather than human beings like they should.

The titular character, Oharu, is introduced in the first frames of the movie, but it takes a bit for her to show her face, similar to how she would hide her face throughout the movie when meeting others for the first time. I think that Mizoguchi shot that long scene to put us into the shoes of how other people would see her and long to look at her face. Eventually, the beauty that she tries to hide turns into a beauty that she hides because of the path that she walks now as a nun. I thought that, despite everything that she went through, it was a respectable thing that she did. She was shunned by the nun at first because of the misunderstanding that was caused by Jihei, speaking of which, how terrible was that nun for not being able to forgive her and be the better person to still want to take care of a woman that has been tossed aside so many times. I thought that was so sad, to have Oharu in that position and turning to another lady who is supposed to take care of you, still casts you aside for what a man has done to you. It’s not even her fault, and she has to take the brunt of the punishment. But going back to the chronological story, one of the shots that I found interesting was the slow pan that revealed who I assumed was the priest of the temple, standing above the older ladies as a representation of the social status that men had back then.

The importance of money, not just in their society, but in the modern world as well. The shot where they all turned as the counterfeiter showed off the spoils to the people at the brothel was a really good shot. When they all turned around, it was pretty funny to me

More subtlety in the statues as the women are still below them, but also in the shot of Oharu and the other men looking down at her. It just reminds the audience of the lowly status that women had before.

[nyxknocks]

The poor attempt at silencing the gun at the beginning probably set the tone for how I would feel throughout this whole film, lmao.

I also like, couldn't take anyone seriously when they walked hunched over and like they were seconds from either puking or peeing themselves. Genuinely "mom i frowed up" the whole film. Why.

One thing that did strike me from the beginning that I liked is that our man Nishi is just straight up a shell of a person. He has no life behind his eyes, no movement to his body. He's quiet and still. Guarded both by the way he physically holds himself as well as the near ever-present sunglasses he wears. It doesn't give me the stereotypical "I'm a tough guy cop" vibe. More of a sad, sullen and void of a human type of energy. Dude is entirely disassociated from life. Considering the shit he's had to deal with, it makes sense. He's like if Nanami was old and not hot.

While I do like the choice of mostly orchestral music because it tends to add a lot more of the typical despair tone that I feel like this movie carries throughout, I also can't give it too much credit. Maybe I'm burned out, but I've heard better orchestral OSTs. I will also give it credit that it knew when to kick up and when to fade out and leave no background music. More modern movies tend to have music constantly telling us how we're supposed to feel. It is interesting to see this juxtaposition of these scenes with really heartfelt/heart-wrenching orchestral elevator music where Nishi is supposedly Feeling Emotions compared to the silence or loud bursts of noise during violence. Likely its a commentary of the emptiness violence has to offer--because it appears much of (if not Nishi's whole life) is filled with violence of a sort (cancer is a form of violence) and why he, himself, is empty.

So much of this film is just standing around with quick cuts to abrupt violence before going back to the silence. Intentional, yes, but used so repeatedly throughout that I had the same issue I had with Oharu--dried up my give-a-shit well about a quarter of the way through. By the middle of the film baby I was in a drought worse than California.

I liked the non-linear storytelling. I do think that was done well, I just don't care for the story. It's also interesting that such a lifeless character gave art supplies to the dude who got paralyzed as a way to like, help him come back to and express himself. That felt oddly humanist. Maybe there's a soul in that detached body somewhere. Or maybe that was his way of like trying to kickstart himself into becoming a real boy again. It also felt like each painting foreshadowed what was about to happen in said scene--at least the one's they put more emphasis on.

One scene I think is particularly rude as hell is when she's watering the picked flowers and Mr. Buzzkill over here is saying its no use watering dead flowers like she herself isn't the physical manifestation of plucked wildflowers that are dead or dying. She still deserves to be watered, you prick.

Blood doesn't do that.

[svereds-wise-words]

Cruel Story of Youth / Naked Youth

Man, when we started watching this movie I came into it expecting the seriousness and intensity that we saw in Life of Oharu, but this film was something else. In this film the two young people, who are most likely supposed to be a larger representation of youths during that time, are wildly following passion and pleasure as the only truths of their existence. Nothing else is important to them, whether it be rules and regulations, legal matters, other family ties / relationship ties etc. We can see this clearly dictated in their actions when the main female character (Makoto) ignores the wishes of her family and lives with her boyfriend. We see it when Makoto lies to the police officers for a shorter sentence and then immediately wants to continue committing the crimes that got her put there in the first place. We see it in the guy when he ignores the older woman he is sleeping with for our main female character. When the main guy (Kiyoshi) drives the motorcycle, ignoring the effects that it may have for the person who he borrowed it from.

By driving this bike into the ocean he completely ruins it, and as a result they end up killing him for it. It creates this kind of dialogue indicating that despite their care free attitudes, that life has consequences and ignoring them will only end in harsher consequences. This happens with Makoto too when she gets a ride with another old man, willing ignorant of her own safety (I think she might have been trying the scheme again, but I can't remember exactly). This ends up with the same result that she was aiming for with every single shakedown they had attempted before; however, this time she wasn't ready for it, and when she tried to escape it killed her. This reinforces the idea that "choices have consequences" and that blindly adopting this generally western idea of 'following one's passion and damning the consequences' doesn't turn out well.

One thing that might have drawn audiences to this movie is its usage of color, but more realistically how B-rated it seems. There are many scenes that are comical in how bad or odd they feel. There is a scene where Kiyoshi puts an apple on the neck of Makoto (who just finished aborting her child), and then has an entire scene to himself just eating this apple. I'm still a bit lost to the message behind the scene, but the director chooses to film Kiyoshi eating nearly the entirety of the apple start to finish. Personally, I feel like whatever the message he was trying to send, he could have done that with an 8 second scene of him eating the apple rather than the near minute we get in the final production. The scene's with both of their deaths feel a bit B-rated as well. I am aware that this film was made in 1960; however, the way in which Makoto died just felt so unrealistic. She jumps out of a car and somehow catches her foot in the door and scrapes her face across the ground, but if you were really jumping out of a car is it even possible to get your foot stuck in the door like that?

[karin-ko]

Life of Oharu by Kenji Mizoguchi

The film "Life of Oharu," directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, portrays the tumultuous life of a beautiful woman named Oharu.

The film portrays the societal roles of men and women during the Edo era. Regardless of a man's class or position, women were consistently viewed as possessions of men and were never regarded as equals. In such a world, Oharu, due to her exceptional beauty, finds herself manipulated by various men and repeatedly plunged into unfortunate circumstances. She lacks freedom in both love and work, with her downward spiral in life dictated entirely by the whims of men. Though fleeting moments of happiness do occur, they are often short-lived due to factors such as social status disparity or her past. It was hard to continue to watch Oharu, who stubbornly and strongly lives her life, not being rewarded while feeling the sorrow of living in a fate that repeatedly pushes her to the bottom of misfortune. Living as a woman during that era seemed incredibly challenging, and it made me unintentionally feel the joy of being able to live in the modern world. It is frightening to contemplate how a single misstep in choice due to a simple desire to live with a loved one could lead to such prolonged unhappiness.

While the film carries a profoundly tragic narrative, there are moments that elicit smiles, such as the scene where senior retainers search for a woman who meets the meticulous criteria of their lord, or when Oharu, likened to a bakeneko, mimics feline behavior. Also, scenes like the silhouette of a cat taking hair and where the face of one of the Five Hundred Rakan statues overlaps with that of Katsunosuke were particularly striking. The scene in which the man scatters money and revels extravagantly in a pleasure district where Oharu works recalled me the imagery of No-Face from "Spirited Away" dispensing gold.

The film predominantly employs long shots, allowing for seamless transitions between scenes as characters move from one location to another with the camera, maintaining continuity and enhancing realism, thereby immersing the audience in the unfolding narrative. It was as if I were watching a stage performance. There were many scenes, such as shots from under bridges and characters moving across rooms, that would not have worked unless everything was carefully calculated the meticulous coordination of character positions, camera movement, and set layout. This meticulous attention to detail facilitated a palpable sense of movement and flow, resulting in an engaging viewing experience. The structure of the story, such as the connection of the first and last scenes with flashbacks bridging, the fact that at the end of the story, Oharu takes the position of the woman who plays the shamisen midway through the story, and the out-of-focus camera direction to show Oharu's dizziness, were also good. I am amazed that they were able to create something this good at that time.

Moreover, the performances of the actors were amazing. Despite the few close-ups, their movements and expressions effectively conveyed the situations and emotions. Particularly noteworthy was the portrayal of Oharu by Kinuyo Tanaka, whose acting prowess was truly captivating. Her performance adeptly reflected Oharu's age, social status, position, and emotional state at each moment through her mannerisms, speech, voice, and expressions, and she skillfully depicted the tragic feelings of Oharu as she descended into old age, portraying her despair through facial expressions and demeanor with remarkable precision.

This film is a collaborative artistic creation of the director, cinematographer, cast, and crew, encapsulating the world of the Edo period with its cityscapes, props, traditional musical performances, puppetry, costumes, dances, hairstyles, makeup, and more. However, I do not think I have ever seen a film in which the protagonist is not rewarded until the end, with such a string of misfortunes. I can't think of any other film that leaves me with such a feeling of emptiness after watching it, even though there are no major incidents or deaths of characters that make me feel emotionally involved in the film.

[majortomwaits]

hi!! 14 & 30 for the film asks, if you're up for it? :D

14. a film whose main genre is Science Fiction Death Watch, a thrilling film that I watched for Harry Dean Stanton and Harvey Keitel, but ended up being absolutely blown away by its plot and Romy Schneider's performance, insane, if you like weird science fiction stories that seem to be set in what looks like the ordinary world, give it a watch, it'll stick with you

30. a film to feel bad/depressed The Life Of Oharu, definitely the most depressing film i've ever watched, not a single moment of joy in it and yet it is so masterfully crafted that you can't look away

[shihlun]

Kenji Mizoguchi

- The Life of Oharu

1952

[orinthered]

screenshot from life of oharu redrawn in the style of aleksander rostov for class

[noahjo]

Late Chrysanthemum

Another movie that revolves around just life, a theme I’m starting to pick up on a good amount of Japanese films in the 20th century so far. Many american films have very dramatic, fast-paced films with a full narrative to complete, however movies like I was Born But, Tokyo Story, Life of Oharu and this one are open-ended. At times I could understand if a current viewer could watch these movies and wonder what the point is. This movie in particular perplexes me. Nothing exactly fully dramatic takes place like in Tokyo Story where the mother falls ill, nothing funny happens like the many gag moments with the kids in I Was Born But…, and nothing completely tragic either like in Life of Oharu. I went through the majority of this movie feeling really neutral and I am unsure if that is a good thing in terms of enjoyability.

 The characters were kinda interesting, their past more specific. The 4 women were all geisha and have moved on with their lives. Okin saved up money and is rich in cash, so she continuously gives out loans to the other ladies. Nobu runs a restaurant with her husband and the other two ladies, Tamae and Tomi live together with their children. I find the relationship between the 4 of them funny. Kin seems to be disliked but tolerated by the other 3 due to her “richness” and persistence of getting paid back. In all honesty I don’t blame her and she is probably my favorite character in the film.

Kin is a feminist icon, she is disliked for giving out loans and even if they aren’t given back immediately she lets off the other ladies for months to pay it back. However, I can understand that the other ladies can see her as condescending. She does seem to care and refused to give out loans to people she doesn’t care about like Seki, he man who tried to kill her, or Tabe who ended up being a disappointment. The way the other women expect her to just do as the men expect is strange. Especially with their laxness on Seki who really tried to kill himself and Kin, and I don’t understand it. It’s the same with Tabe as well, who just expects Kin to throw herself at him. I believe it’s because it was just expected of women to do so, and Kin fought against the mold. Multiple times throughout the movie she states her dislike for men, and Tabe was the last man she truly cared for.

Tame and Tomi story is interesting as they both revolve around their children moving on in life, which is a normal part of life. I don’t really blame the children for moving on, the living conditions they had was not the best. Overall, decent movie.

[byneddiedingo]

Kinuyo Tanaka and Isuzu Yamada in Flowing (Mikio Naruse, 1956)

Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine, Mariko Okada, Haruko Sugimura, Sumiko Kurishima, Chieko Nakakita, Natsuko Kahara, Seiji Miyaguchi, Daisuke Kato. Screenplay: Toshiro Ide, Aya Koda, Sumie Tanaka, based on a novel by Koda. Cinematography: Masao Tamai. Production design: Satoru Chuko. Film editing: Eiji Ooi. Music: Ichiro Saito. 

Having been a college English teacher and a print journalist, I know something about what it's like to be in a dying profession. So I have some empathy with the women in the geisha house in Mikio Naruse's Flowing. Their story is told largely from the point of view of Rita Yamanaka (Kinuyo Tanaka), whose name the owner of the house, Otsuta (Isuzu Yamada), finds too difficult to pronounce, so she calls her Oharu, a name that will have resonance for anyone who has seen Kenji Mizoguchi's 1952 masterpiece, The Life of Oharu. But unlike Mizoguchi's heroine, this Oharu is a simple woman in a profession that will probably never vanish: a maid. Her quiet ubiquity in the house enables her to see and hear things that heighten her mistress's financial struggles and the household's eventual doom. Equally valuable is the role of Katsuya (Hideko Takamine), Otsuta's daughter, who was trained as a geisha but doesn't want to be one. She regards her mother's profession as a commodification of self. Unfortunately, Katsuya has no marketable skills and is struggling to find her way in a male-dominated world. Naruse's film is a poignant and searching commentary not only on the disappearing way of the geisha but also on the role of women in a society trying to redefine the relationship between the sexes. Tanaka, Yamada, and Takamine are three of the greatest Japanese actors; it's a treat to see them working together, and they're beautifully supported by the rest of the cast.   

[samuell2]

Life of Oharu (It’s hard being hot)

Every guy you meet is either a total dirtbag, a criminal, or a dead man. Your parents sell you off at any chance they get. It’s rough being a lady in the Tokugawa era.

Oharu begins her life as a court lady who is exiled from Kyoto after being caught with a vassal of low status. I wasn’t that surprised at Oharu’s punishment, but it really shocked me when they straight up beheaded the vassal. I guess they were pretty serious about this stuff back in the day.

Next we follow the servants of a local lord on their search for a concubine. The lord’s demands are obviously absurd (8 inch feet??) and so its pretty comical to watch the servants frantically searching a huge row of women for the features requested (When one woman tells the older servant she’s 25, he replies “Oh, you’re just the leftovers!” LMAO) Like in Ugetsu, Mizoguchi uses comedy to enhance the social commentary of the film by putting us in the shoes of these men, to whom women are at best breeding stock, and at worst a punchline.

Oharu is selected as the concubine, but incurs the jealousy of the lord’s wife, who is already insecure as a result of some illness related balding. I think it’s kind of ironic that her hair condition would have been such a bad thing in an era where the highest men’s fashion is to push your hairline back to the age of dinosaurs, but that’s besides the point. Oharu exposes the wife with the help of a cat (for some reason it feels weird to see a cat in the 1600s) but is dismissed anyway, and goes back home to become a courtesan.

There she meets a counterfeiter, and is fired when some of her pride as a court lady emerges and she refuses to scrounge on the floor for his (fake) money. This counterfeiter is a total caricature of greed, another part of the film’s social commentary.

Oharu finally meets a nice man, then he gets stabbed like 5 minutes later. Womp womp. It’s rough out here ladies.

Taken in by another family, she is eventually visited by her a servant of her former lord collecting debt. It’s another hilarious moment when he declares to Oharu “I won’t be seduced by a whore like you!” and then changes his mind when he sees her naked, wiping his forehead like a cartoon character.

The story comes full circle to the temple, and we see Oharu finally taken in by her son, who is now a lord. But of course things never go right for Oharu, and she ends up repenting for the rest of her days.

Oharu’s is let down by everyone and everything in her life. She is let down by the rigid rules of the imperial court, and she is let down by her parents when they sell her. She is let down by the lord whom she serves as concubine, and she is let down by the man who promises to buy her from servitude. She is let down by the nun who promises to take her in, and by the priest who offers to buy her as a prostitute. Finally, she is let down by her own son.

Patriarchal systems are able to survive because they present themselves as a sort of exchange, wherein a woman submits to to men in exchange for their protection and monetary support. This film shatters the illusion of that bargain, and exposes the degree to which men, even in a period in which their conduct was supposedly honorable, used women for very specific purposes and discarded them almost immediately.

Good movie though. Oharu deserved better :(