Kenji Mizoguchi's Birthday
On May 16, 1898 in Tokyo into a roofer family Kenji Mizoguchi was born.
Mizoguchi’s cinematic career began back in 1923, in the era of silent cinema. It’s difficult to determine the exact number of films made by Mizoguchi, since some of them were lost. Their approximate number is from 80 to 90. Mizoguchi's filmography includes 34 full-length sound films. Four of them entered the Golden Thousand, so Kenji Mizoguchi, along with three other Japanese filmmakers, was included in the list of 100 greatest directors of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand.
Mizoguchi's cinematographic work came at a time when cultural ties between the USSR and Japan had not yet been developed. As a result, Mizoguchi films were not shown in Soviet cinemas. Even today, Mizoguchi films come to the attention of either notorious cinema-fans, or fans of Japanese culture in general. But if they do, then they will not leave you indifferent. This can be judged on the basis that a very small number of reviews on Kinopoisk are devoted to Mizoguchi films in comparison with, for instance, IMDB. But then among them there are practically no negative ones.
The main theme of the best paintings of Mizoguchi is the difficult life of a woman in Japanese society, whether it be a contemporary director's society or a medieval one. Hence the abundance among the images of his films of geishas and prostitutes. And this is absolutely explainable. Mizoguchi grew up in a family in which a cruel, but financially insolvent father tore evil on his wife and children. The eldest daughter, Suzuko, he eventually sold to the so-called "geisha house". And it was Suzuko who, after the death of her mother, took Kenji from her father and managed to provide him with an education that allowed him to become one of the greatest directors of world cinema, a multiple laureate of the Venice Film Festival. This explains the kind, sympathetic attitude of the Mizoguchi director to geishas and prostitutes in his films. And this despite the fact that one prostitute, with whom Mizoguchi was in a long relationship, nearly stabbed him, inflicting very serious numerous knife wounds.
On the day of the 123rd anniversary of the birth of the great Japanese director, we want to remind fans of his work, shots from his best films included in the Golden Thousand.