Kinuyo Tanaka, Hisako Yamane, Toshiro Mifune, Jukichi Uno, Ichiro Sugai, Eitaro Shindo, Akira Ooizumi, Masao Shimizu, Daisuke Kato, Toranosuke Ogawa, Eijiro Yanagi, Yuriko Hamada, Haruyo Ichikawa, Komako Hara, Kikue Mouri, Sadako Sawamura, Toshiaki Konoe, Kinnosuke Takamatsu, Benkei Shiganoya, Unpei Yokoyama, Tsukie Matsuura. Originally released as a motion picture in 1952. Based on a novel by Saikaku Ihara. Special features: Dudley Andrew on The life of Oharu: Mizoguchi's art and the Demimonde (an illustrated audio essay; Commentary by Dudley Andrew; The travels of Kinuyo Tanaka (a 2009 film by Koko Kajiyama documenting Tanaka's 1949 goodwill tour of the United States).
Summary:
In 17th-century Japan, a samurai's daughter, Oharu, falls in love with a servant. Caught together, the man is beheaded and Oharu and her family are exiled. After enduring further misfortunes as a concubine, a courtesan, wife, and prostitute, Oharu becomes a mendicant nun in her old age. A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society throughout its history, Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu) had already been directing movies for decades when he made The Life of Oharu in 1952.
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