reviewvancouver: The Cinematheque

Sansho the Bailiff

山椒大夫 (Sansho dayu)

Japan 1954. Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi. 124 min. 35mm

Dates and Venue 1 - 12 Mar | The Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street

Critics like Robin Wood and film directors like Jean-Luc Goddard have highly acclaimed Mizoguchi calling him the "Shakespeare of Japan" and a champion of classic film-making. Indeed, this is the director I would use in a filmmaking class, because these days, you have filmmakers who call themselves directors and their so-called avant-garde style is all garbage. These contemporary directors who confuse audiences by having so many sub-plots and leaving endings up to the audience is far from what good filmmaking is about. This stunning period piece which won a major prize in Venice is based on an old Japanese folktale. In 11th-century Japan, a liberal-minded provincial governor is forced into exile by enemies who cannot abide his politics. When his wife and children set out to join him, they fall prey to slave traders. I like Mizoguchi’s use of fluid camera movement and of long-take sequence shots.

Street of Shame

赤線地帯 (Akasen chitai)

Japan 1956. Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi. 85 min. 35mm

Dates and Venue 1 - 12 Mar | The Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street

Two years after his prize-winning Sansho the Bailiff, Mizoguchi comes up with a contemporary piece about prostitution. This was his last film, as he died of leukemia a few months after. This film focuses on the exploitation and suffering of Japanese prostitutes.It's set in a Tokyo brothel called “Dreamland,” where several diverse women working as prostitutes contend with the tribulations of their trade and the difficult socio-economic realities of postwar Japan. It's hard to tell whether the film was intended to be a tragi-comedy because there were some scenes that were light and funny (Japanese style), but again this shows the versatility of this filmmaker who can direct a film classic a la Shakespeare, and a couple of years later, do a serio-comic contemporary production like this one. Again, another classic example of good film-making which new filmmakers today should study and follow.