Saikaku ichidai onna (1952)

Director:

Kenji Mizoguchi

Writers:

Saikaku Ihara (novel)
Kenji Mizoguchi (writer)

Release Date:

20 April 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The tale of a 17th century samurai's daughter.

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Kinuyo Tanaka	...	Oharu
Tsukie Matsuura	...	Tomo, Oharu's Mother
Ichirô Sugai	...	Shinzaemon, Oharu's Father
Toshirô Mifune	...	Katsunosuke
Toshiaki Konoe	...	Lord Harutaka Matsudaira
Kiyoko Tsuji	...	Landlady
Hisako Yamane	...	Lady Matsudaira
Jukichi Uno	...	Yakichi Ogiya
Eitarô Shindô	...	Kahe Sasaya
Akira Oizumi	...	Fumikichi, Sasaya's Friend
Kyôko Kusajima	...	Sodegaki
Masao Shimizu	...	Kikuoji
Daisuke Katô	...	Tasaburo Hishiya
Toranosuke Ogawa	...	Yoshioka
Hiroshi Oizumi	...	Manager Bunkichi

Also Known As:

Diary of Oharu
Saikaku: Life of a Woman (literal English title)
The Life of Oharu

Runtime:

148 min | USA:133 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | UK:PG | Hong Kong:I

Company:

Koi Productions

Trivia:

This film, which was director Kenji Mizoguchi's dream project, was severely under-financed, and the production was forced to use a warehouse instead of a regular sound stage. This warehouse happened to be located near railways, and each time a train passed by, they had to stop shooting, which made the shooting of the film even more difficult with the director's obsessive use of long, continuous, uninterrupted takes. The same warehouse was also used for Josef Von Sternberg's film 'The Saga of Anatahan'.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai (1975)

a masterpiece

I cannot agree with the reviewer who commented that Mizoguchi does not have the aesthetic sensibility of Kurosawa or Ozu. In fact, he appears to me to be the true master of Japanese cinema. 'Oharu' is a marvellous achievement - a compassionate, beautiful account of a quite astonishing fall from privilege and grace into destitution and despair. It is unremittingly bleak and yet due to Mizoguchi's genius and Kinuyo Tanaka's luminous portrayal of the unlucky Oharu, it is a spiritually compelling work, with sheer artistry and simple human empathy competing for our attention in every take. Breathtaking film-making of the highest quality.