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An ageing prostitute, Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), walks slowly through the back streets of her patch, she's tired and cold and bemoans the lack of business, she gathers around a fire with her colleagues for some warmth and some chat. One of her colleagues asks her about her past as a courtesan, but emotionally scarred, Oharu is unable to discuss it and goes on her way. She enters a local temple, where there are many statues of Buddha's disciples, these faces bring back memories of her turbulent life, one in particular triggers flashbacks of better times….

Once as a courtesan Oharu had enjoyed the splendour of fine things with her parents. One day Oharu is tricked into a meeting with a nobleman by his servant, Katsunosuke(Toshiro Mifune), once alone he comes clean and pledges his love for her, at first she spurns him because of their different social status, but then she pledges her undying love to him, but their tryst is stopped in its tracks by a court official who catches them together. Oharu and her family are banished into exile, Katsunosuke fares much worse and is beheaded for his crime. Now broke and desolate, her father threatens to sell her to make ends meet, however an envoy from Lord Harutaka Matsudaira spots her and offers her the opportunity of becoming the Lord's concubine, as his present wife is sickly and unable to bear him a child. She finally agrees and dutifully bears him the son and heir he requested. Contrivances and petty jealousies then conspire to see her thrown out of her new home right after the birth, this however is just the beginning of her tortuous labyrinthine passage through life….

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1952 Venice Film festival, The Life of Oharu is an adaptation of Saikaku Ihara's novel "Koshuku Ichidai Onna that follows familiar territory for the great Mizoguchi, who is perhaps best known for his tales of devastating loss and injustice, in particular when they are from the woman's point of view. Oharu is truly, an epic and compelling chronicle of a journey of brief highs and truly shocking lows for the main protagonist, Mizoguchi's film is a powerful critique of the Feudal class structure and how it unjustly destroyed many lives of ordinary people. Despite its Feudal setting it still feels very relevant and contemporary , its themes being timeless. The film is awash with elegance and is beautifully filmed by Yoshimi Hirano and Yoshimi Kono with all the flowing movement you might expect from the directors work, it gives life and symmetry to the wonderful period sets. The acting is also superb in its simplicity, some of their merest movements providing great power to the final product. Mizoguchi constantly plays with the viewers emotions without ever becoming preachy, just when you think Oharu has turned a corner, we are devastated by another unflinching twist of fate, its this pattern which gives the film an overall downbeat feeling, that shows Mizoguchi's mastery of the medium.

Japanese cinema was virtually unknown in the West prior to Akira Kurosawa's victory at the 1951 Venice Film Festival with RASHOMON (1950); its success spurred fellow director Kenji Mizoguchi (whose career was basically in the doldrums at that stage) on to complete a dream project of his. Even so, due to the scarcity of sound stages after WWII, this film was shot in a large warehouse which was later also used by Josef von Sternberg for his own Japanese venture, ANATAHAN (1953). Consequently, THE LIFE OF OHARU (itself awarded the Silver Lion at the following year's edition of the Venice Film Festival) became Mizoguchi's own breakthrough effort – despite having already been in the business for thirty years! Actually, it turned out to be the first of five consecutive works of his to compete for this coveted prize.

Having been personally involved with them, the trials and tribulations of geishas was a favorite theme of the director's and THE LIFE OF OHARU would seem to be its cinematic apogee'; in fact, eminent film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum went so far as to call it "the most powerful feminist protest ever recorded on film". It was also the twelfth collaboration between Mizoguchi and his leading lady Kinuyo Tanaka (who even turned to directing films herself the following year, the first Japanese woman to do so – to her mentor's apparent chagrin!). Conversely, the brief, almost unrecognizable appearance of Toshiro Mifune (albeit in a pivotal role) marked his only stint in a Mizoguchi film. While its very subject matter makes it perhaps less immediately appealing than the Japanese film-maker's subsequent masterpieces, THE LIFE OF OHARU still emerges as an exceptional work in his distinguished canon (in spite of its being cluelessly awarded a measly **1/2 rating in Leonard Maltin in his "Film & Video Guide"!).

The film is long and episodic – everything that can possibly go wrong for Oharu does: the daughter of a samurai serving in the Imperial palace, she falls for a lower class page. He's beheaded for violating the social code when they're caught together, while Oharu and her family are exiled. A servant of a lord arrives looking for a concubine and settles on the heroine; after bearing the lord's son, his clan banish her for draining his energy! She's consequently forced into prostitution by her highly-indebted father, but is dismissed for being too proud before long. Next, she's hired by a wealthy merchant who takes advantage of Oharu upon learning of her past – an action which incurs the wrath of his jealous wife. A period of happiness married to a fan-maker is cut short when he's murdered by thieves, whereupon she decides to become a nun; however, Oharu's expelled once again when caught seducing a textile merchant to pay off her debts! Now reduced to street begging, she's taken in by two prostitutes – but is laughed at by her customers for being old and ugly. Oharu is then visited by her mother with the news that she's been invited back into her son's clan – but the elders veto the idea and, because of her 'shameful' behavior, is only allowed one glimpse of him! At the end of the picture, we see her resuming a beggar's existence…

Oharu's emotional turmoil is brought vividly to life by Tanaka's magnificent central performance – the actress herself was 42 at the time but, given Mizoguchi's penchant for medium shots, she manages to convincingly get away with portraying a woman from the age of 18 through to 50 – as well as an excellent music score by Ichiro Saito. Despite a generally downbeat tone, the film is relieved occasionally by humorous passages (such as the fastidious specifications required in choosing the lord's mistress and the ultra-servile attitude of the host at the brothel towards extravagant customers). The circular nature of the narrative is also evoked in visual terms: the film's very opening sequence is re-enacted towards the end; besides, the image of a cat stealing off with the wig of the merchant's wife is echoed by Oharu's imitation of a growling feline when confronted by the scorn of her customers.

Having missed out on a rare Sunday morning screening on Italian TV (in the original language, no less), I'd long considered purchasing the film on VHS but had discarded this plan in view of the fact that the full-length version is supposedly 148 minutes (against the 137-minute print on the VHS). Still, I couldn't pass it by any longer when the R2 DVD also presented the shorter cut (even if I didn't have to buy it); hopefully, Criterion will sooner or later release their own edition to go with the other Mizoguchis – UGETSU (1953) and SANSHO THE BAILIFF(1954). Unfortunately, 30 minutes from the end, my DivX copy froze and wouldn't proceed any further – so I had to hastily convert it to DVD-R (a highly time-consuming process) in order to finish viewing the film!

Being a huge fan of Ozu and Kurosawa I finally came around to watching Kenji Mizoguchi's films. Unfortunately here in the UK only two are available. However I am very lucky that this is one of them 'Life of Oharu' is a stunning feature film, one which could never be matched in todays cinema. Kinuyo Tanaka takes on the daunting task of portraying a tragic, complex and engrossing character. Oharu spans from the ages of 18-50 and Tanaka manages to pull off convincing performances at all these ages. We are taken through (as the title would suggest) the life of a young woman named Oharu. It begins with Oharu as an old woman, a fifty year old prostitute who has problems getting clients. She enters a temple one night and remembers her first love, and the start of her descent. Her first love is forbidden as she is from a well respected family and he is a poor and humble samurai. He is executed and she and her parents are banished, in a truly moving scene the family follows them over a bridge and are told they may go no further. Next Oharu is hired as a concubine to a powerful lord. She bears him a child, but she is soon thrown out as she becomes attached to the child. Wherever she looks for love she fails, with a husband who is killed and a life that just spirals into oblivion. What makes this film so tragic is that Oharu is completely innocent, falling victim to love that is beyond her control. Like all great tragedies we know what is to come, and it is the inability to stop it that drags the audience in. Mizoguchi's beautifully composed a masterpiece here. A great film that has a well rounded set of characters that in any other episodic drama such as this may seem hollow. Mizoguchi handles each important moment in Oharu's life with complete confidence and artistic control. There are also a number of comic scenes that help ease the depression and show that life is not always doom and glume. The film doesn't preach or hammer home its point, it shows what happens and subtly gets its point across. One of the best films I have ever seen and a real treat for any film fan. Don't let this one escape you, and I can only hope more of Mizoguchi's films are released on these shores.

"Saikaku ichidai onna" or "Saikaku: Life of a Woman" is an award-winning black-and-white movie from 1952, so this one will soon have its 70th anniversary. Of course, despite this age, it is a sound film already. And obviously it is a Japanese production as the director here is Kenji Mizoguchi and he is also among the writers who adapted the novel the film is based on for the screen. Now I think that not too many immediately scream here when asked if they know the name Mizoguchi (and that includes myself too), but looking at his body of work and how well it is received still today a lot of it, it can be safely said that he is Tier II when it comes to Japanese filmmakers and Tier I is really only Kurosawa of course. Besides Mizoguchi really did not reach an ancient age, died before his 60th birthday already (from leukemia), so had he gotten a bit older then he perhaps could have delivered more quality films, especially because his biggest successes are from the last decade of his life, which makes sense also because of the political climate in Japan before that. So yeah quite a pity he did not live longer, but still during his career he almost directed 100 movies and for many of these he was also in charge of the screenplay. Very prolific man and a hard worker.

Now lets take a look at this one we got here: The lead actress is Kinuyo Tanaka and she was at least as prolific as the man behind the camera. This is definitely among her most known efforts now. She was around the age of 40 when this was made, but she plays herself really during all kinds of times in her character's life. Sometimes she is way younger, sometimes way older. And she is in basically every scene. The only other cast member I can mention here is Toshirô Mifune becaue he is considered one of Japan's greatest actors of all time now. But here he is just supporting just like everybody else except Tanaka. It's her movie from beginning to end. And it is a really depressing movie unfortunately. Or fortunately. Because the protagonist's misery on many occasions lets you feel for her. I only want to mention a few of the bad things happening to her. Early on, she is in love with a guy below her social status and the two are caught and exposed. She is told that she has to leave the town and the guy is killed with a sword as punishment. So she loses her social prestige becausse of what happened and also her parents are punished too and have to leave with her. And especially her father is really harsh on his daughter because of what happens. This relationship is one that is constantly there from beginning to end of this film and always a burden, even when he dies because then we have her mother visit her and actually at that point the protagonist just collapsed and then her mother shows up and tells her that her father is dead and that is basically the daughter's fault. So yeah I am not sure if the mother despises the daughter too or just has zero emotional intelligence, but with parents like these you don't need any enemies really. Okay let's not forget that the main character also lost her love there. Next up is basically that she is picked by a wealthy and influential man to give birth to his child. I was honestly really surprised that he picked her because there were many more attractive options, but oh well maybe that is just me. I must say in general they did not manage to make a 40-year-old look like 20-year-old and apparently that was what they had on their minds, so a huge challenge and yeah well big surprise she was picked. But all goes well and she gives birth. The son is healthy and everybody is happy. For a while because then Tanaka's character is sent away back to her parents and they again are not happy at all. Or the father I should say. They did not comfort her daughter when her love was executed. They did not comfort her daughter when she had to give up on her son.

More humiliation ensues. She finds another love years later who really appreciates her honestly, but that one is killed by burglars or robbers or so out of nowhere. She ends up with a thief, but he is caught in the act. This woman definitely has no problems finding men. Near the end then the circle somewhat closes as she ends up being close to her son again. They agree to let her see him, but as she has worked as a concubine and prostitute at that point already, they despise her and say such a person is not acceptable and they say after having seen her son once she will be locked away in confinement for the rest of her life. So she realizes if she wants to be free she has to give up on the idea of seeing her son and flee. That's what she does knowingly she will never lay eyes on her only child again. This somewhat made me really sad, although I am not entirely sure I got it 100% correctly. So the tragedy for the main protagonist results in the compassion you feel in the audience. Yes it is a really long film at almost 2.5 hours and I would lie if I say it never dragged at all for me, but it still went by pretty quickly luckily. I am glad I got the chance to see this on the big screen for the first time on the occasion of a retrospective on Mizoguchi and I am already curious about other films from him being shown in the next weeks. This one her gets a thumbs-up from me because there are no major weaknesses, even if for such a long film real greatness was not reached too often either. So not too enthusiastic my recommendation and obviously this is not a film for everybody. But it was individual scenes that made it work like the "witch humiliation" from a group of men and also the references about her being poor and making music. Early on she just witnesses a women who does exactly that and she realizes this could be her future self and she is shocked and scared and later on we see her in exactly this situation that she is the one with the mix between mourning and singing. It is definitely a good screenplay. A rating easily above 8 out of 10 is certainly too much, but yeah I believe this one deserves to be seen adn I am glad Mizoguchi left us works like this. Also the other departments like the soundtrack are fine. See it.

Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu is the tragic, humanistic tale of, well, the life of a woman named Oharu. Born into luxury, she errs with a man of lower class. For this offense, she is exiled along with her parents, convicted of letting their child run wild. As the film progresses, Oharu goes through about a thousand hardships - hell, any normal person would have killed herself after experiencing just the first of Oharu's hardships! Life of Oharu is very heavy, but it avoids emotional manipulation. It even has a couple of humorous moments. If you doubt me, watch the scene where the jealous wife pesters her husband, trying to force him to admit that he first met Oharu at a brothel. The man is being shaved by his personal barber, and his wife keeps riding up on his side. So the husband lifts his mirror and walks a few spaces away, just to have his wife sidle up right against him again! The climax to this particular episode (the part with the cat, if you're confused) is also quite humorous. Still, most of the film is heart-rending. It's also amazingly directed by Mizoguchi. His camera movement is exquisite, absolutely exquisite. I was left a little disappointed in Sansho the Bailiff, often said to be his best film, but the direction of Oharu is original and masterful. The acting is also wonderful. 10/10.

It's a solid film, conveys a message, but I don't think that is enough. If one where to watch tons of movies, one will soon discover that not every film needs a happy ending, in fact some of the best movies have very sad and Bleak endings. However, a movie that wants to retain the feeling of satisfaction (that ussualy comes with a happy ending) from the audience, it better give something good in return! In other words, watching Oharu is rather boring. I think it could have benefited by spending more time with some of its main characters, and dropping a few minor ones. After watching two hours of Oharu, at the end I can barely say I know her. There is just too little time between tragedy and tragedy that you can't even begin to see the impact of the first one when a new tragedy comes. Also (and this is a hot take) I don't believe the casting was all the good it could have been. Especially at th begining Is very weird watching this clearly 43 year old woman pass as a 17 year old. It takes away from the illusion of realism, and therefore the empathy is so hard trying to achieve. I liked the initial theme of suffering for love and staying true to oneself, but the movie kinda drops those themes about halfway trough to focus solely on Oharu's disgraces. As a conclusion, I would say that it's bleakness doesn't pay off for the long and kinda boring experience of watching it, but it can be worth a watch for people who are already in love with the world of feudal Japan.

The movie is about dramatic tale of a girl from noble samurai family at the service of Imperial Court in Kyoto, who fells in love with a man from a lover rank, and with her love unleashes the calamities emanating from conservative Japanese society and fate. After her fault was discovered she and her family were exiled and her beloved got executed for his transgression. Before his execution he sends Oharu a message instructing her to be happy with a man she would love and not to submit to the authority of the feudal structure by surrendering herself to the dictum of society. With the combined forces of society and fate Oharu experiences most tragic things that may befall on a woman. She gets sold as a concubine to a noble court to breed a heir for the Lord, then her son was taken away from her and she was dismissed. Later in order to pay his debts her father sells her into Shimabara to be a courtesan. Afterwards she was forced to prostitution and once lady at imperial court Oharu's calamitous life of ends up as a beggar. So we see a steep fall of a woman from top of the society to the bottom. However she stays loyal to the request of her beloved – all the time she was forced to surrender her body, but she keeps her soul. In this utterly materialistic and cruel world, with its stunning means of subjugation – she rejects all these values. Oharu rejects going to house of Lord as a commodity although she may well gain her lost status and favor of the Lord there. She cries only when her son was taken away from her, she cries when her fan maker husband gets killed, etc. For e.g. when she was living in destitute as a prostitute – her mother comes and brings her good news that the Lord wants to live with her. Her mother also puts emphasis on material aspects of this news, whereas this only instigates hope in Oharu for a chance to meet her son but for nothing else in material terms. But again it comes out that she was summoned for the shame she brought to the royal court and she was convicted to be exiled. They do not give her a chance to meet her son. She runs away and ends her tumultuous career as a beggar.

So, Mizoguchi represents life of a woman who was made subject to customs of utterly materialistic and oppressive feudalistic society. In a sense Oharu emerges as a victorious from this struggle, she keeps what her first beloved asked from her. But she is not represented as an active actor – struggling and showing resistance. She is very passive, submissive and docile. So her victory is not in material sense. She experiences a downfall from the highest rank of being lady at imperial court to be a concubine at a lover court, and then she becomes a courtesan, then a prostitute and ends up as a beggar. But alongside with this fall there is rise of Oharu in idealistic terms with her denial and defiance in the face of this materialistic dictum. She never surrenders to and internalizes the values of the society she lives in. So this fall in materialist terms is accompanied with the rise of her soul with its lofty values. In this sense it is meaningful that she ends up as a beggar which can be seen as total rejection of material life.

Lastly, it is interesting that events are not presented from the point of view of Oharu. Neither it is from the other – feudalistic side. Actually Oharu herself is a passive actor. It is more like an objective camera representing us a tale of a women. This respect of the movie makes it one sui generis among many others that were shot on the similar topics.

This is a deeply moving film, essentially a set of tableau, small episodes representing the fall and degradation of a naive noblewoman, brought down by her love for a commoner, desperate bad fortune, and the hypocrisy of a feudal society that condemned her for making the choices forced upon her. The camera-work is beautifully fluid, with long flowing takes, so different from what we expect from that other great director of the period, Ozu. It is carefully paced, allowing the force of the story to carry the viewer along to the desperately sad ending. The movie is far more restrained than you would expect for the topic, it avoids any didacticism, but still makes undeniably clear the directors disgust at how a society can force someone into such degradation. A very beautiful movie, essential viewing for anyone interested in the period.

Kenji Mizoguchi, with another elegy on human suffering. The focus is on a young woman, but with an eye on the larger social world of organized injustice that expects a woman to be the image of a woman.

A wide panorama of a cruel, patriarchal Japan emerges: servile men and women, obedient vassals to absent lords, bow their heads to the most icy whims, cold, selfish fathers sell their daughters to pay off a loan, fragile wives cower fearful that they might lose the affections of their disinterested husbands, snotty owners of upscale establishments crawl at the sight of money even if it comes by a peasant's hand, prayer is a mock ritual that comes before or after the most debasing acts. Youth and beauty are minutely groomed to be a pleasant diversion for money and power, and are finally banished from sight when the serve no more use.

It is all meant to work as an expose on the harsh realities behind the cherry-blossomed idylls of medieval Japan, a world so completely controlled that only a cat, a supernatural agent, can expose its ugliness. It is educating to see, no doubt, but this function does not interest me overmuch. The single-minded focus on critique inadvertently irons out some of the complexities of a more elaborate world.

One it preserves, therein lies the film's power for me: the relation between an abstract image, a reality cultivated to appear a certain way, and the tortured soul and heart that give rise to it. It is the crux of artistic expression, to go no further.

It is important, to use this as a starting point, to be able to note in jidaigeki how submission is both social evil and spiritual practice. One does not negate the other, and this coexistence continues to power Japanese life and art to this day. Being a courtesan was its own artform, like cinema its own abstraction of the human experience, but we know that; we can take that from even the shoddy Memoirs of a Geisha. Mizoguchi, of course, posits that the abstraction was forced, or cultivated by necessity, and so first and foremostly social evil. This is the part that is readily available to Western audiences, who can draw from our own histories of repression.

We see the fruits of that evil. The woman is finally stranded before the gates of hell, alone playing her sakuhachi. So where are the plum blossoms growing there, in the midst of suffering, as the Zen teachers used to say?

The first layer has the tangy taste of irony; the woman is finally afforded some peace, but only as she submits to the image she has been groomed into. Her first client turns out to be a teacher of dharma, who uses her as a cautionary example of the transient world to his disciples. Again, she concedes to be the cultural image, the instrument, the agent, again a goblin cat that has suffered with beauty to expose ugliness. The second layer is where we are tricked to expect redemption. But it's again a bleak victory, that she can only disappear from her persecutors in the maze of their own gardens.

The final image is the enigma of a small gesture, as the woman, offers a passing nod to a temple in the distance.

It is a powerful work, but a little one-sided for what I expect from the best of films. It is right, of course, to condemn what it does from a bygone time; but since we can plainly see that we continue to suffer in our increasingly more democratic and comfortable lives, that it has not ended with the abolishment of this or that institution, how does the film address that human state that knows no boundaries?

Ugetsu sees both ends with more clarity.

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese master of world cinema, renowned for his lyricism and poetic imagery of nature. He had the talent of positioning the viewer as an observer through creative camera movement and composition. He created elegant films that depicted the circumstances in which Japanese women had to live, and to make choices. When Japanese films first arrived to Europe in the early 1950's, he was instantly praised as the greatest master of Japan; until the year of 1954 when Akira Kurosawa made Seven Samurai. Kurosawa changed everything the Europeans had so admired about Japanese cinema; exoticism, beauty and silence of life. But still, even to this date, Kenji Mizoguchi is considered as a great master of his country. Mizoguchi defined what Japanese cinema was all about. He brought Japan among other nations, outside of Asia.

Even that Kenji Mizoguchi started making films in the 1920's, he made his most celebrated films during the rising of Japanese cinema, in the early 1950's. Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of the Pale Moon after the Rain, 1953) might just be his most well known work, and it is quite perfect with its synthesis of picture and sound, reconstruction of the epoch and the poetic imagery. His films of this era were characterized by strong aesthetic styling, poetry and beauty. But also by postwar disillusions, darkness and the price of war. They were stories set in feudal Japan, during the 16th and 17th century, but were allegorical for postwar Japan. The Life of Oharu is much more strictly tied to its own time, compared to Ugetsu, but it also succeeds in being a timeless classic with its portrayal of injustice and contempt.

A samurai's daughter, Oharu, falls in love with a lower-class servant. After getting caught she and her family get deported from their village. When the local Lord is in need of a concubine to produce him an heir, Oharu gets a second chance. But after the new Lord has been born, Oharu is once again deported with only a small payment. The film follows the road of her life which is full of misfortune and darkness.

The title of the film is quite revealing with regards to the content of the film. It portrays the life of Oharu, full of agony and despair. In her life, Oharu only gets three moments of joy all of which are eventually taken away from her: first when she falls in love with the servant; she thinks that she has found the love of her life. But gets disappointed as the society can't approve relationships regardless of wealth and status. Then when she is promised a better life as a concubine; she thinks that a more affluent life waits for her but only gets abused and betrayed. Finally, when she is promised to see her son; the son of the Lord, to whom she gave birth to, a better life should await for her. But in turn gets once again deported and becomes a beggar.

Kenji Mizoguchi doesn't embellish the misery one bit but he doesn't highlight or point out things for us either. There isn't a slightest error of exaggeration in the film. The people Oharu becomes acquainted with are all spiritually poor and horrible, with a few exceptions. The few benevolent people are determined to die or lose it all. For instance the dance fan-maker Oharu marries, after trying prostitution and being a busker. The man loves her, regardless of her past, but gets murdered for no reason. Most of the other men treat Oharu like dirt, coldly and without compassion. But of course as a historical film The Life of Oharu tells more about the time it was made in than the time it takes place in. Through this story Mizoguchi touches many unmentioned taboos of the Japanese society in the 1950's.

In The Life of Oharu a woman doesn't have a change for better life; social rising is impossible. The only way to improve one's life, for a woman, is to marry an affluent man. But not even that works for Oharu. Since her man gets killed and she is once again doomed. This ruthless depiction of the society still contains lyric flashes of the transience and sudden beauty of life. These images are contrasts for the social realism, which isn't naturalism by any means. For its style, the film comes close to poetic realism of its own.

In addition to these insightful themes of the transience, beauty and severity of life, The Life of Oharu also has strong criticism for capitalism. In the art of cinema, prostitution is often a reflection of market economy and free trade; women are free to sell themselves as they wish, but actually are forced to do so. For a film with a strong take on like this, it's no surprise that its themes are strictly social; disregard, money, hierarchy, avarice, power and injustice. One excellent example is the scene where a man enters to a brothel. First the men in charge try to drive him away but after seeing his great amount of money, decide to treat him like a king.

The contempt of women is part of Mizoguchi's social criticism but a parallel can be drawn to feminism as well. The director has often been called a 'pre-feminist' since he depicted the desolation that characterizes the lives of many women. He made several precisely considered shots that examined the circumscribed choices of women in the Japanese society. In a world like this there is no hope left for women. The life of Oharu is the road for the damned. The road to hell, along which there is nothing good and only death awaits in the end. Her life is a path built on graves of those who tried and died before.

'Life of O Haru' is a very characteristic movie for Kenji Mizoguchi with its theme of forbidden love, its criticism of social conventions and its realistic and incisive description of the fate of women, the behavior of males and the effect of being sincere in a society, here a feudal one.

In this feudal society, love (sexual intercourse) between a member of the nobility and a commoner is a transgression of the barrier between the social classes. When it is discovered, like in this movie, it is disastrous for the lover, the girl and her family. A real nightmare begins for the girl O Haru. Her beauty and sincerity are exploited to the bone, by brothel keepers, by those who need a male heir to ensure the continuation of the political and social power of a clan or by males (also a member of her family) in a position of 'strength '.

The choice of the scenes, of which some are extremely painful, and the angles of the shots illustrate masterfully the balance of power in a society run by absolute power (the shogun), a world without feelings and mercy. As always with K. Mizoguchi, his direction of the actors is admirable; not one false note. This movie is a true masterpiece. A must see.