SILVER

[SAIKAKU ICHIDAI ONNA] [西鶴一代女]
Mizoguchi considered this his own masterpiece, adapted from a classic 17th-century novel by Saikaku Ihara. Kinuyo Tanaka — the great actress whose career was synonymous with Mizoguchi's for 15 films — plays the titular Oharu, an Edo Period court lady cast out for dallying with a page (Toshiro Mifune in his only Mizoguchi appearance). Sold to a feudal lord, Oharu is subject to a series of humiliations and ends up a broken sex worker. Winner of the International Prize, 1952 Venice Film Festival. DIR/SCR Kenji Mizoguchi; SCR Yoshikata Yoda, based on the novel by Saikaku Ihara; PROD Hideo Koi. Japan, 1952, b&w, 136 min. NOT RATED

AFI Member passes accepted.