Kenji Mizoguchi

This is a scar born from a knife strike in the back of the young Mizoguchi, coming from an enamoured jealous prostitute. This event enabled him to become the great cineast of women, and much more !

Um camponês pobre, após anos de miséria, torna-se um rico e poderoso comerciante de Osaka. Projeto final de Mizoguchi Kenji, ele morreu antes de concluí-lo e as funções de direção foram entregues a Yoshimura Kozaburo.

O cotidiano de um bordel e os dramas particulares de suas profissionais no Japão do pós-guerra, enquanto o país discute a ilegalizaçao da prostituição.

Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating the uprising of pirates in the western sea of Japan. But because the high courtiers dislike career soldiers gaining power and influence, they ignore the will of ex-Emperor Toba and refuse to reward the captain. Reward recommender Lord Tokinobu is punished, and the captain sends his son Kiyomori to the Lord's residence, where he falls in love with Tokiko, the Lord's daughter. Meanwhile, Kiyomori finds out that he is possibly the ex-Emperor's son... Written by L.H. Wong

China, século XVIII. O último Imperador da dinastia T’ang faz o luto pela morte da mulher. A família Yang quer arranjar-lhe uma nova consorte, assim consolidando a influência na corte. O general Na Lushan encontra uma parente afastada a trabalhar na cozinha, a quem é proposto ser apresentada ao Imperador, recriando a imagem da primeira mulher dele. O Imperador apaixona-se por ela, entretanto instruída e ornamentada para ser sua concubina, e ela torna-se a Princesa Yang Kwei-Fei.

No século XVII, esposa de um rico avarento vive insatisfeita e frustrada, e quando precisa de dinheiro para ajudar o irmão, recorre a um dos empregados do marido. Os dois são descobertos, mas o rapaz assume a culpa para salvá-la. Sabendo das traições do marido, ela decide arriscar tudo e fugir com o empregado.

Hatsuko Umabuchi é uma viúva proprietária de uma próspera e requintada casa de gueixas de Quioto. A filha, Yukiko, regressa de Tóquio, onde estudara música, depois de uma tentativa falhada de suicídio porque o noivo a deixou quando descobriu qual era a profissão da mãe. Hatsuko tem nesse momento uma ligação amorosa com um jovem médico, Matoba, responsável pela saúde das gueixas. O médico sente-se atraído por Yukiko, que inicialmente o rejeita por o associar ao negócio da mãe. No entanto, os seus sentimentos alteram-se gradualmente na ignorância de que ele é amante da mãe.

Japão, século XI. A família de Taira é separada pelas lideranças feudais. Seus dois filhos, Zushiô e Anju, são enviados para um campo de trabalho escravo comandado pelo temido Sanshô, enquanto sua esposa, Tamaki, é forçada a prostituir-se em uma região isolada. (e 12 - Estimado 12 Anos)

In the post-war Gion district of Kyoto, the geisha Miyoharu agrees to apprentice the 16 year-old Eiko, whose mother was a former geisha who had just died. After a year of training they have to find a large sum of money before Eiko can debut. Miyoharu borrows the money from the tea-house owner, Okimi, who in turn obtains the money from the businessman Kusuda. Kusuda fancies Eiko himself and wants to give Miyoharu to Kanzaki in order to close a large business deal. However both geishas have minds of their own and, going against tradition, want to be able to say no to clients.

No Japão do século 16, os camponeses Genjuro e Tobei vendem as suas panelas de barro para um grupo de soldados numa vila próxima, desafiando a advertência de um sábio local contra a tentativa de lucrar com a guerra. A busca de Genjuro por riquezas e a misteriosa Lady Wakasa, assim como o desejo de Tobei de se tornar um samurai, correm o risco de destruir tanto a si quanto as suas esposas, Miyagi e Ohama.

Baseado em romance de Saikaku Ihara, o filme conta a história da vida de Oharu, uma mulher que na juventude fazia parte da corte do imperador e que em virtude de um relacionamento acaba como pedinte e cortesã, já senhora.

Baseado em romance de Saikaku Ihara, o filme conta a história da vida de Oharu, uma mulher que na juventude fazia parte da corte do imperador e que em virtude de um relacionamento acaba como pedinte e cortesã, já senhora.

Baseado em romance de Saikaku Ihara, o filme conta a história da vida de Oharu, uma mulher que na juventude fazia parte da corte do imperador e que em virtude de um relacionamento acaba como pedinte e cortesã, já senhora.

Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.

Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu to marry so that she can remain close to Shinnosuke.

Hamako has just started working for her personal hero, Madame Yuki. Her romanticized view of the Madame is broken immediately, though, as she is introduced with a ever-growing list of the Madame’s personal problems.

A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government.

Fusako, a drug dealer's young mistress in postwar Japan, loses her tenuous grasp on life upon learning about her lover's affair.

The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent.

Utamaro, a great artist, lives to create portraits of beautiful women, and the brothels of Tokyo provide his models. A world of passion swirls around him, as the women in his life vie for lovers. And, occasionally, his art gets him into trouble.

A lawyer fights doggedly for a more just legal system to rid Japan of its draconian penal system.

Hisshoka is a 1945 Drama film directed by four Japanese directors.

Kiyone Sakurai, an apprentice swordmaker makes a sword for his guardian, Kozaemon Onoda. Onoda breaks the sword while defending his lord which eventually leads to his death at the hands of Naito, when Naito demands to marry his daughter Sasae. Sasae vows to avenge her father's death and pleads for Kiyone Sakurai to make a special sword for her. So Kiyone and his fellow swordmaker Kiyotsugu go to the master swordsmith Kiyohide Yamatomori to learn their craft and forge the sword. - Will Gilbert

The first of five Musashi series, Shinobu and her brother Genichiro plead with the famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto to teach them swordsmanship to avenge their father's death. The killers of their father see the sister and brother practicing with Miyamoto, and so enlist the help of another powerful swordsman, Kojiro Sasaki, which gives Sasaki an excuse to battle Miyamoto.

Este é um filme dividido em duas partes. A primeira parte foi lançada originalmente no Japão antes do ataque a Pearl Harbor. O filme foi adaptado a partir da peça de Seika Mayama. A película desenvolve a crônicas do final da vida dos 47 Ronin, que tornaram-se (baseado historicamente) uma lenda na história japonesa.

A Man of the Arts

Followup film to Osaka Elegy - Osaka Woman

Followup film to Osaka Elegy - Osaka Woman

O filho adotivo de um ator renomado descobre que só é elogiado nos palcos e poupado das críticas negativas por ser o herdeiro do seu pai, e que seus colegas o menosprezam pelas costas. Somente uma empregada da familia é honesta com ele e tem coragem de lhe dizer a verdade, ainda assim incentivando-o para que continue na profissão.

A village romantic drama. (Now lost.)

A story of a servant girl whose life is upturned by her doomed love for a spineless young man.

A story of a servant girl whose life is upturned by her doomed love for a spineless young man.

Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting her time and money on a loser. She thinks that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. Omocha therefore tries various schemes to get rid of Furusawa, and set themselves up with better patrons.

Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting her time and money on a loser. She thinks that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. Omocha therefore tries various schemes to get rid of Furusawa, and set themselves up with better patrons.

Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss so she can pay her father's debt and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement.

Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss so she can pay her father's debt and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement.

Based on Soseki Natsume’s 1908 novel of the same title, Poppy is an ornately complicated story of desire and ambition. Fujio is beautiful, talented, well-heeled, and engaged to Munechika, a rising young diplomat. She has promised him a gold watch, a family heirloom, as an emblem of their engagement. But she falls in love with Ono, a student employed to tutor her in English, who is attracted by her beauty and wealth. Ono is himself bound by an engagement to Sayoko, the daughter of his mentor, Professor Inoue. The self-centered Fujio is ready to forsake everything for Ono, but he is prevailed upon to go ahead with his marriage to Sayoko. Fujio then offers the watch to Munechika who, perceiving Fujio’s true feelings, hurls the watch into the sea.

When a civil war threatens to break out, two geishas flee from their village with aristocrats. During the long journey, the socially inferior women prove to be morally superior to their betters.

Kenji Mizoguchi is credited as “supervisor” on this rare Japanese genre film, which stars the stunning Isuzu Yamada (Osaka Elegy, Throne of Blood) as a professional criminal, part con woman and part martial artist, who falls in love with a young man from the straight world.

In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When Kumazawa is arrested, Osen agrees to help Sokichi finance his dream of going to medical school. They live in a humble room, and eventually the only way Osen can find enough money for them is to prostitute herself during the day, without Sokichi knowing. (Will Gilbert)

A sad love film where the action takes place in Kyoto, in a trading house.

A sad love film where the action takes place in Kyoto, in a trading house.

Taki no Shiraito is a very independent young woman with a famous water juggling act in a travelling carnival troupe. She falls in love with an orphaned carriage driver Kinya Murakoshi, and pledges to put him through law school in Tokyo. She always encloses money in her letters to him, until one hard winter there is no work to be found.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Released in 2 parts. His only release of 1931

Tōjin Okichi is a 1930 film by Kenji Mizoguchi based on the novel by Gisaburo Juichiya. Only 4 minutes have survived. The fragment has been published on DVD coupled with The Downfall of Osen (1935) by Digital MEME in 2007.

While returning by boat to Japan, Yoshie Fujiwara meets a rich woman who suggests him to become a singer thanks to an impresario friend of hers.

The Morning Sun Shines is a fiction-documentary film by Kenji Mizoguchi and Seiichi Ina. The film is a combination of a drama about a reporter, and documentary footage about newspaper production. Only 25 minutes of footage has survived.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.

A classic melodramatic love tragedy addressing social inequality in feudal Japan, depicted in Kenji Mizoguchi's typical style. The nostalgic scenes of 1920s Tokyo provides a valuable visual experience set against the background of the title song, "Tokyo March." (Sadly, only 24 minutes of the film now survive.)

This film is about the curse of a jealous woman destroying the lovers on the run.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.

Mizoguchi’s 30th film is the earliest surviving example of his work, and his only film of the 1920s to survive complete. Song of Home finds the director already concerning himself with the collision of traditional and modern values. The film is structured around the contrast of two country-bred boys: a coach driver who has never left his home, and a student who returns from Tokyo with city-slicker affectations and Western jazz records. Produced by the Ministry of Education, the film has a simplistic lesson-plan at its heart, but what lingers in the mind after viewing are its more ineffable qualities: The dulcet, lyric, evocation of a disappeared rural past.

An Expressionist film about masses downtrodden by authoritarian capitalism. (Now lost.)

An adaptation of Anna Christie, considered lost.

One of Mizoguchi's first films, considered lost.

One of Mizoguchi's first films, considered lost.

An old potter despairs of having only two daughters and no son, hoping his apprentice will one day bring him an heir. The apprentice meets the eldest daughter but is disgusted by her. He decides to marry the younger daughter, who is in love with another man.