Zangiku monogatari (1939)

Director:

Kenji Mizoguchi

Writers:

Matsutarô Kawaguchi (writer)
Shôfû Muramatsu (novel)

Release Date:

15 January 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In Tokyo in 1885, Kikunosuke Onoue, the adoptive son of an important actor, discovers that he is praised...

Plot Keywords:

Acting | Class Differences | Family Honor | Kabuki | Sacrifice

Cast

Shôtarô Hanayagi	...	Kikunosuke Onoue
Kôkichi Takada	...	Fukusuke Nakamura
Gonjurô Kawarazaki	...	Kikugoro Onoue
Kakuko Mori	...	Otoku
Tokusaburo Arashi	...	Shikan Nakamura
Yôko Umemura	...	Osata
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nobuko Fushimi	...	Onaka
Kikuko Hanaoka	...	Eiryu
Kisho Hanayagi	...	Tamisaburo Onoue
Ryôtarô Kawanami	...	Eiju Dayu
Yoneko Mogami	...	Otsura, Genshun's daughter
Tamitaro Onoue	...	Tamizo Onoue
Benkei Shiganoya	...	Genshun Amma
Fujiko Shirakawa

Also Known As:

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums

Runtime:

142 min | Argentina:145 min | USA:148 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Hong Kong:I

Company:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai (1975)

The Mizoguchi Masterpiece

Mizoguchi's films always have a pro-feminist slant and this film of a dud actor transformed by the self-sacrifice of a women is his earliest film I have seen and is his best film. All the Mizoguchi touches are here in abundance, fluid camera movements, brutal humour, impossible love, themes that although are more pronounced in his better known films (The Life Of Oharu, Sansho The Baillif, and Ugetsu) blend seamleley together to make one of the truly great films of all time.