The life of Oharu (DVD) [videorecording] / Janus Films ; Toho Company, Ltd. ; a Shintoho-Koi coproduction ; produced by Hideo Koi ; screenplay by Kenji Mizoguchi and Yoshikata Yoda ; directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.
Format:
[videorecording] /
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2013
Description:
1 videodisc (136 min.) : sd., b&w ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet ([20] p. : ill. ; 18 cm.)
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 featuring Andrew), 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). Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez.
Summary:
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. But this epic portrait of an inexorable fall from grace, starring the incredibly talented Kinuyo Tanaka as an imperial lady-in-waiting who gradually descends to street prostitution.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.