Not even Lars von Trier can get to dramaturgy this depressing about a woman's decay of a life and horrendous bad luck. Yet Kenji Mizoguchi keeps things engrossing just because this character of Oharu is a smart, empathetic character, and the idea of a person having no real rights but only owners really is something that should go past simple feminist statements. at the same time I think, coming as it does in post war Japan in 1952, its the director via the book saying, look, don't take ANY freedoms for granted. not a shot is wasted here (even if one or two go just a bit longer than necessary, it's fine though, von Trier does worse).
And it all amounts to a moral plea, that even in the system of owners and property and where money is king (not queen), you still make choices to be decent or indecent, and that perceptions shouldn't be just taken at face value. If there is any big lesson to take away it's that so much horror that can befall a good person is someone's first impression and lack of critical thinking. Indeed, it's shot with an uncanny ability to focus on major points in seemingly small moments- when the one man is looking about at all the Kyoto girls and none fit his strict standards for his master's breeding needs, the shot tracks along as he is looking at them all slowly, and it ends with the shot showing all the girls looking at the man like 'what did we do wrong?' But the performances are all strong (if, yeah, melodramatic as hell at times, it is Japanese neo-realism to an extent).
And of course the inimitable Toshiro Mifune steals his precious scenes and helps to add to the initial trauma for Oharu- when you lose a man like that, it's all downhill from there perhaps.
And it all amounts to a moral plea, that even in the system of owners and property and where money is king (not queen), you still make choices to be decent or indecent, and that perceptions shouldn't be just taken at face value. If there is any big lesson to take away it's that so much horror that can befall a good person is someone's first impression and lack of critical thinking. Indeed, it's shot with an uncanny ability to focus on major points in seemingly small moments- when the one man is looking about at all the Kyoto girls and none fit his strict standards for his master's breeding needs, the shot tracks along as he is looking at them all slowly, and it ends with the shot showing all the girls looking at the man like 'what did we do wrong?' But the performances are all strong (if, yeah, melodramatic as hell at times, it is Japanese neo-realism to an extent).
And of course the inimitable Toshiro Mifune steals his precious scenes and helps to add to the initial trauma for Oharu- when you lose a man like that, it's all downhill from there perhaps.