The Life of Oharu

THE LIFE OF OHARU
SAIKAKU ICHIDAI ONNA
Japan
1952
148 Min
Black and White
1.37:1
Japanese
DIR Kenji Mizoguchi
EXEC Isamu Yoshiji
PROD Hideo Koi, Kenji Mizoguchi
SCR Saikaku Ihara, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yoshikata Yoda
DP Yoshimi Hirano, Yoshimi Kono
CAST Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichiro Sugai, Toshirô Mifune, Toshiaki Konoe, Kiyoko Tsuji, Hisako Yamane, Jukichi Uno, Eitarô Shindô, Akira Oizumi, Takashi Shimura
MUSIC Ichirô Saitô
My Rating : 3/5



With The Life of Oharu, I believe that I have watched three of Mizoguchi’s most important films (the other two being Sansho the Bailiff and Ugetsu). The other two movies I did not review mainly because I wanted to check out all the three of his important works before coming to a judgement.
The Life of Oharu like the other two movies is a period drama and a tragedy (Ugetsu ofcourse has a horror element as well, which I believe, works in its favor, making it the best of the lot). The movie traces the life of a woman in 17th century Japan who during her life loses her first love due to class differences, becomes a local ruler’s concubine and is discarded after she gives him the heir to his throne, becomes a courtesan, enters into a happy but short lived marital life, tries to become a buddhist nun but her past haunts her and she is driven back into prostitution. Finally she becomes a bhikshu taking alms in the name of buddha. There are a few more events in the life of the protagonist that not surprisingly end in tragedy.
The conclusion that I can draw from this movie is that Mizoguchi is very good at tragedies. He knows how to create scenes that will emphasise the tragedy of his protagonists and if you are a sensitive person, will also make you cry. His mise-en-scène’s are brilliant and his shooting style is probably a complete antithesis to that of Ozu’s. His art direction is superb and hence his period drama’s are the most genuine looking. People who love watching tragedies hence no doubt love Mizoguchi. Unfortunately, I noticed that there were very few memorable scenes in this movie unlike tragedies like Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa or Kaagaz Ke Phool and even Naruse’s Floating Clouds which make them truly great in my book. The depth that these tragedies reach are much more profound than the surface treatment that Mizoguchi offers in his films. The only scene that I really liked, and hoped that there could be more scenes like this, was the one in which the protagonist describes the statues of buddha’s disciples as looking very familiar to the people she has met in her life. The profound irony in this scene is the most memorable aspect of this movie. The rest of the film has scenes that just try to hammer the sense of tragedy into the viewer’s mind and although momentarily effective, are hardly memorable.