Orizuru Osen

Orizuru Osen

DVD cover of 2009 release
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Produced by Masaichi Nagata
Written by Tatsunosuke Takashima
Based on Baishoku Kamo Nanban
by Kyōka Izumi
Starring Isuzu Yamada
Daijiro Natsukawa
Ichiro Yoshizawa
Narrated by Suisei Matsui
Midori Sawato
Cinematography Minoru Miki
Production
company
Daiichi Eiga
Distributed by Shochiku
Release date
  • January 20, 1935 (1935-01-20) (Japan)
Running time
90 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Orizuru Osen (折鶴お千) (English: The Downfall of Osen) is a 1935 black and white Japanese silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Isuzu Yamada.[1] It is based on Kyōka Izumi's novel Baishoku Kamo Nanban.[2]

Like most Japanese silent films, it played with benshi accompaniment. The film centers on the theme of the strength of a woman who gives everything to the man she loves; a theme which Mizoguchi explored his whole life. The moving camera technique and bold retrospective scenes greatly reflect Mizoguchi's experimental approach.

Cast

Reception

Japanese film scholar Chika Kinoshita noted that the film occupies a special place within the critical reception of Kenji Mizoguchi's oeuvre and it has been signed out as one of the earliest embodiments of his style in the late 1930s.[3]

References

  1. Bock, Audie (1978). Japanese Film Directors. Kodansha. p. 65. ISBN 0-87011-304-6.
  2. McDonald, Keiko (2000). From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films. p. 16.
  3. Kinoshita, Chika (Spring 2011). "The Benshi Track: Mizoguchi Kenji's The Downfall of Osen and the Sound Transition". Cinema Journal. 3. 50. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. p. 1.
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