Kenji Mizoguchi’s Dynamic Film Career.
One of the greatest directors in Japanese cinema is, without a doubt, Kenji Mizoguchi. He made several amazing and thought provoking films in his career from his start in 1925 with The Song of Home to his final film in 1956 Street of Shame. While, as many as 55 of his films (mainly early ones) were lost, it is clear that the majority of his movies focus on women and their suffering in society. Women’s roles throughout history are a complex issue in any country, and Japan is no exception. From the famously misunderstood Geisha system, to the moga, and then to prostitution and black-markets during the American occupation, the topic of women in Japanese society is a complex one to address. Yet, Mizoguchi aimed to tackle this topic throughout his career with the overarching message that the system of oppression women face is evil and must be rectified. While this message remained a constant theme in many of his movies, the time periods the movies were made in heavily dictated the method in which he delivered this message, and also heavily influenced his outlook on society at large. I argue that Mizoguchi went through three periods of film production in which his depiction of women in society and his outlook on society changed drastically. His first two periods, pre-war and occupation, are very similar, producing films like Osaka Elegy (1936), Sisters of the Gion (1936), Victory of Women (1946), and Women…
