Isuzu Yamada stars as a modern woman trapped by traditional values in OSAKA ELEGY
OSAKA ELEGY (NANIWA EREJII) (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, May 24, 7:00, and Saturday, May 31, 3:00, free with museum admission of $12
Series runs May 2 – June 8
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
If Osaka Elegy had been made by Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor, or Billy Wilder, perhaps it would have been a screwball farce or a bittersweet romantic comedy. Instead, in the hands of Japanese auteur Kenji Mizoguchi, it is a searing, hard-hitting drama that began his poignant quartet of Fallen Women films. A companion piece to Sisters of the Gion — both films were made in 1936 with a similar cast and crew and both examine the changing roles of women in 1930s Japan, as tradition battles modernity — the black-and-white Osaka Elegy starts out with a bright, cheery, jazzy opening and beckoning neon lights that are not seen again till reflected in a river in the memorable finale, the music now very different. Isuzu Yamada (Throne of Blood, Tokyo Twilight) stars as Ayako Murai, a telephone operator at a pharmaceutical company who, because of the Japanese concept of giri, is responsible for repaying three hundred yen her drunkard father (Seiichii Takekawa) embezzled from his job. Desperate to keep him out of jail, she accepts an offer to become the mistress of her boss, Mr. Asai (Benkei Shiganoya), jeopardizing her potential relationship with coworker Nishimura (Kensaku Hara) and making an enemy out of her boss’s wife, Sumiko (Yoko Umemura). But when her brother, Hiroshi (Shinpachiro Asaka), needs another two hundred yen to complete his schooling, she considers an offer from another big shot at work, Mr. Fujino (Eitarō Shindō), continuing her downfall.
A shadowy darkness hovers over Kenji Mizoguchi’s OSAKA ELEGY
Written by Yoshikata Yoda (based on a story by Mizoguchi) and photographed by Minoru Miki, Osaka Elegy captures a pre-WWII Japan that is caught between traditional values and the promise of freedom of the modern world, particularly as it applies to women. Ayako wears contemporary clothing and wants to make decisions for herself but cannot escape the old ways. She is judged by nearly everyone she meets except for Dr. Yoko (Kunio Tamura), a modern-thinking man who ultimately cannot save her. While Ayako believes one can erase the past and follow true love, she is surrounded by loveless marriages, overpowering misogyny, and people afraid to break out of their expected roles. Mizoguchi, whose family sold his older sister into prostitution when he was a boy, went on to make such other powerful, female-centric, and tragic tales as Street of Shame and Women of the Night, commenting on the social conditions in twentieth-century Japan. The government actually banned the film in 1940, citing it as “decadent.” Osaka Elegy is screening May 24 at 7:00 and May 31 at 3:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s five-week tribute to the master auteur — who made more than eighty films, less than half of which still exist — which continues through June 8 with such other works as The 47 Ronin, Miss Oyu, The Crucified Lovers, and A Woman of Rumor.