You have to WATCH this film but it can bring you in unexpectedly; shots at first may appear to be languid, veering maybe towards an early Bela Tarr film. But not too soon after it begins Mizoguchi's feminist scatch that, simply a deeply felt humanist view of the world, that oppression from familial obligations and guilt creates the tragedy of it all. The Kabuki and theatrical performances were the only parts I felt things lag a bit for me; I readily admit not being from Japan or understanding this anachronistic style ironically but correctly Mizoguchi ups his pace for cutting in these scenes, there are more cuts and more reactions from the audience.
I nevertheless think this is so powerful because of the purity of its story, that it is challenging the hierarchical structure of the period while coming to a conclusion in its final section where artistic triumph and tragic fate collide. Some may actually read into Osuka that she is a "doormat", like how can she look past anything she wants all for a man who, for much of the story - a man cant live up to his own standards as an actor, or to his families demands for him to be the next BIG actor in line, so he leaves home to cut his own path, with this woman who was once his little brothers wet nurse as his lover but more importantly his booster - lacks confidence.
But I found myself rooting for him and finding that he was not unsympathetic; when he does get angry and pissy at one point the feeling is not hate but one of "come on you can put it together! Do it for her if nothing else! So much of Last Chrysanthemum is painful to watch, yet in a way that I can never pull away from.
A lot of it comes back to how he uses the camera and editing - take a key moment between these two people near the end and he never goes for the easy close up or two shot, we have to see this from one end of the room, but the emotion is laid bare - and that everyone in the cast knows how to play for it being about the firmness, even sanctuary nature, of the status quo.
At times melodramatic as any soap but directed with the fluidity and timing of a confident old master Mizoguchi was 40 when he made this, and really John Ford and his long, absorbing masters and mediums are a better comparison than Tarr , this was an experience that brought me in gradually from one melancholic but realistically drawn scene after another.
Certainly not something to watch to get in a "happy" mood, but then when is with this filmmaker? This is one real powerful and effectively directed movie, that also is fine looking and features some fine acting performances. It's a quite long movie, which is not really due to its story but more in the way its sequences are handled. Director Kenji Mizoguchi maintains a very slow pace with many long static scenes in it, in which the camera doesn't move and there are no in between cuts.
It does work out well though for the movie. It makes the movie visually beautiful to look at but also makes the story more powerful. It's a real fine directed movie, for which the director can not be praised enough. He handles the movie and its story really well and effectively.
The story features some typical and important Japanese themes in it, such as honor and family. Fans of Japanese cinema or Japanese culture will surely get a blast out of this movie. The entire story is set in the Japan, or Tokyo to be precise, of This means that the movie is also being filled by some wonderful looking sets and costumes. It's also a pretty well acted movie. Normally I'm not a too big fan of acting in Asian movies but this movie feature some rather realistic performance, that don't ever go over-the-top, which also is a real accomplishment for a '30's movie in general.
Mostly due to its directing approach the movie works out so well and effectively. Because lets be honest, the story itself is actually quite simple and also not something that hasn't done before in any way. It's the reason why director Kenji Mizoguchi is still so loved and appreciated by many, even now, well over 50 years after his death.
The themes are all handled well and despite being not too original, it all works out still well and refreshing. But it's not just a style for everybody though. I can understand that some people might not like watching this movie, since it's pace is so slow and overall cinematic style is so outdated now days. Nevertheless cinematic lovers, or just fans of Japanese cinema, should be able to really appreciate this movie.
No, The Story of Late Chrysanthemums is not a bad movie, not at all. In fact, it is quite good. However, it is hardly perfect. This is an Alcestis-like story about a wife, Otoku Kakuko Mori , who sacrifices herself for the sake of her husband. The man is a young actor, Kikunosuke Shotaro Hanayagi , who is living in the shadow of his famous father.
The name earns him respect and praise, but only when he is present. When his back is turned, nobody hides the fact that they think he's terrible, and he knows it.
Otoku, the wetnurse of his brother, is the first to give him honest criticism. The two fall in love and attempt to marry, but Kikunosuke's father and the rest of his family won't allow him, a man of noble birth, to retain the name if he should go through with it. He does it anyway, and spends many long years suffering as a nobody.
Meanwhile, Otoku works at keeping things going; she even begs acting troupes to give her husband a job. Kikunosuke doesn't appreciate her enough, but, then again, she is selfless to a fault. She becomes downright annoying as the picture progresses: always whining, and, after every major bit of dialogue, she has a coughing fit. Let me ask those who overpraise this movie: did anyone not see the ending coming from the first ten minutes?
Mizoguchi made many films that were similar in theme, but not nearly as irksome, and his actors were nearly always better. Still, the man's cinema is evolving rapidly, and his direction is downright beautiful.
The cinematography flows like poetry. I like it more than I let on above, but I really do want to urge my fellow internet critics to hold the same standards to Kenji Mizoguchi that you would to any other director.
What a role model couple, depicted as the kernel of the mentality of Japan at that time, behind every successful man there is a capable wife, who doesn't has her own ranking or vocation, but should be fully devoted and if lucky intelligent to assist her husband maybe now is still the same , a standpoint may sound outdated and even putrid nowadays. At the first scene, the novel milieu of Kabuki brings immediate exotic flavor to foreign viewers, but it is hard to be truly appreciated in an outsider's eyes, I can not tell the qualitative leap of Kikunosuke's acting skill, plus the orbit of the plot is stereotyped and take the twist and turn for granted, Hanayagi and Mori's acting is too hammy for my taste as well.
Drama Romance. Director Kenji Mizoguchi. Top credits Director Kenji Mizoguchi. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit. Jin'ichi Amano Shintomi's onnagata as Shintomi's onnagata. Haruo Inoue Actor as Actor. Sumao Ishihara Manager of the travelling company as Manager of the travelling company. Minpei Tomimoto Guest in waiting room as Guest in waiting room. Kikuko Hanaoka Onaka, a geisha as Onaka, a geisha.
Fujiko Shirakawa Okiku, geisha as Okiku, geisha. Kenji Mizoguchi. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. In Tokyo in , Kikunosuke Onoue, the adoptive son of an important actor, discovers that he is praised for his acting only because he is his father's heir, and that the troupe complains how bad he is behind his back.
The only person to talk to him honestly about his acting is Otoku, the wet-nurse of his adoptive father's child. Kikunosuke becomes determined to leave home and develop as an actor on his own merits, and Otoku faithfully follows him. Hiroshi Mizutani.
One of the greatest melodramas ever and possibly the single greatest film made in the 's - sometimes I wonder why this is considered Mizoguchi's best movie, because frankly it's not - but it is the most unique film in his ouvere, because it combines almost all the phases of Mizoguchi's career. It looks forward to the neo-classicalism of the 50's works, while retaining the political anger of the films of the 30's - all the while grazing the Brechtian elements which would come to define his films of the 40's.
And it also just has the angriest ending in the history of cinema, but that is another matter. There are things I don't fully understand yet I am greatly…. Here Mizoguchi's class elements and social concerns are so strongly felt, and the film has a powerful emotional resonance. It also has Mizoguchi's beautiful sense of time and place, as well as his simple, wonderful cinematography.
This is a film of long takes and almost no close-ups. The camera travels through buildings and around people, creating a poetry of houses. Each shot is a scene and it is wonderfully confident filmmaking.
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums is a love story. But love hurts. The film follows the adopted son of a successful actor. The son is spoiled and hears no criticism, so….
Mizoguchi was commonly labelled a feminist because of his characteristic thoughtfulness and sympathetic appreciations and awareness of the exploitation of women in a rigorously structured patriarchal society, and this storyline concerning the superficialness of men and the generous nature of women acquires a modest stateliness that stabilises the narratives intrinsically melodramatic romance.
The stage-like attention to the positioning of its principal cast members, as well as the spaces they inhabit curiously reveals isolated cavities of storytelling within the corners of the frame. Rashomon Akira Kurosawa. Ugetsu Kenji Mizoguchi.
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