Saikaku ichidai onna (1952)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

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
Jûkichi 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)

Life's a bitch!

Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu is the tragic, humanistic tale of, well, the life of a woman named Oharu. Born into luxury, she errs with a man of lower class. For this offense, she is exiled along with her parents, convicted of letting their child run wild. As the film progresses, Oharu goes through about a thousand hardships - hell, any normal person would have killed herself after experiencing just the first of Oharu's hardships! Life of Oharu is very heavy, but it avoids emotional manipulation. It even has a couple of humorous moments. If you doubt me, watch the scene where the jealous wife pesters her husband, trying to force him to admit that he first met Oharu at a brothel. The man is being shaved by his personal barber, and his wife keeps riding up on his side. So the husband lifts his mirror and walks a few spaces away, just to have his wife sidle up right against him again! The climax to this particular episode (the part with the cat, if you're confused) is also quite humorous. Still, most of the film is heart-rending. It's also amazingly directed by Mizoguchi. His camera movement is exquisite, absolutely exquisite. I was left a little disappointed in Sansho the Bailiff, often said to be his best film, but the direction of Oharu is original and masterful. The acting is also wonderful. 10/10.