Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

Regarded as one of Japan’s three most important golden-age filmmakers (alongside Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu), Kenji Mizoguchi created a cinema rich in technical mastery and social commentary, specifically regarding the place of women in Japanese society. Though he’d already directed dozens of movies by the midthirties, he would later say that he didn’t consider his career to have truly begun until 1936, with the release of the companion films OSAKA ELEGY and SISTERS OF THE GION, about women trapped both professionally and romantically. It wasn’t until 1952, however, that he broke through internationally with THE LIFE OF OHARU, a poignant tale of a woman’s downward spiral in an unforgiving society that paved the road to half a decade of major artistic and financial successes, including the masterful ghost story UGETSU and the gut-wrenching drama SANSHO THE BAILIFF, both showcasing the extraordinarily sophisticated compositions and long, elegant camera movements that would become his trademark.