Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

13 Episodes

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.

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Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

13 Episodes

  • Osaka Elegy
    1:11:53
    Osaka Elegy
    Episode 1

    Osaka Elegy

    Episode 1

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1936 • Japan

    A critical and popular triumph, Osaka Elegy established Mizoguchi as one of Japan's major filmmakers. The director's often-used leading actress Isuzu Yamada stars as Ayako, a switchboard operator trapped in a compromising, ruinous relationship with her ...

  • Sisters of the Gion
    1:09:48
    Sisters of the Gion
    Episode 2

    Sisters of the Gion

    Episode 2

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1936 • Japan

    Sisters of the Gion follows the parallel paths of the independent, unsentimental Omocha (Isuzu Yamada) and her sister, the more tradition-minded Umekichi (Yoko Umemura), both geishas in the working-class district of Gion. Mizoguchi's film is a brilliant...

  • The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
    2:23:57
    The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
    Episode 3

    The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

    Episode 3

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1939 • Japan

    THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUM was the only movie made by the otherwise massively prolific Kenji Mizoguchi during the year 1939. It was also a fairly daring work to appear amid its repressive, militaristically conservative era, as its tale, of a ge...

  • THE 47 RONIN: Part 1
    1:52:04
    THE 47 RONIN: Part 1
    Episode 4

    THE 47 RONIN: Part 1

    Episode 4

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1941 • Japan

    47 samurai avenge the death of their lord in Kenji Mizoguchi's take on the famous historical event.

  • THE 47 RONIN: Part 2
    1:51:19
    THE 47 RONIN: Part 2
    Episode 5

    THE 47 RONIN: Part 2

    Episode 5

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1941 • Japan

    47 samurai avenge the death of their lord in Kenji Mizoguchi's take on the famous historical event.

  • Utamaro and His Five Women
    1:35:14
    Utamaro and His Five Women
    Episode 6

    Utamaro and His Five Women

    Episode 6

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1946 • Japan

    A famous Edo printmaker is pursued by five diverse women.

  • Women of the Night
    1:13:59
    Women of the Night
    Episode 7

    Women of the Night

    Episode 7

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1948 • Japan

    After World War II, Mizoguchi was inspired by Italian neorealism to make one of the most emotionally and visually raw films of his career. Filmed on location in Osaka, Women of the Night concerns two sisters, Fusako, a war widow, and Natsuko, having an ...

  • The Life of Oharu
    2:16:54
    The Life of Oharu
    Episode 8

    The Life of Oharu

    Episode 8

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1952 • Japan
    Starring Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune, Masao Shimizu

    A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society, Kenji Mizoguchi had already been directing mov...

  • Ugetsu
    1:37:14
    Ugetsu
    Episode 9

    Ugetsu

    Episode 9

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1953 • Japan
    Starring Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka

    By the time he made UGETSU, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ...

  • A Story from Chikamatsu
    1:42:30
    A Story from Chikamatsu
    Episode 10

    A Story from Chikamatsu

    Episode 10

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1954 • Japan
    Starring Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa

    One of a string of late-career masterworks made by Kenji Mizoguchi in the first half of the 1950s, A STORY FROM CHIKAMATSU (a.k.a. THE CRUCIFIED LOVERS) is an exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling ...

  • Sansho the Bailiff
    2:04:26
    Sansho the Bailiff
    Episode 11

    Sansho the Bailiff

    Episode 11

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1954 • Japan

    When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi's dazzling direction, this classic Japa...

  • Princess Yang Kwei-fei
    1:31:30
    Princess Yang Kwei-fei
    Episode 12

    Princess Yang Kwei-fei

    Episode 12

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1955 • Japan

    In this rare color Mizoguchi film, the Emperor of China falls in love with a woman being groomed by a family of treacherous aristocrats.

  • Street of Shame
    1:26:15
    Street of Shame
    Episode 13

    Street of Shame

    Episode 13

    Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1956 • Japan

    For his final film, Mizoguchi brought a lifetime of experience to bear on the heartbreaking tale of a brothel full of women whose dreams are constantly being shattered by the socioeconomic realities surrounding them. Set in Tokyo's Red Light District (t...

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