We wish to thank...
the various film magazines and all the writers...
who have helped us make this film.
A Kindai Eiga Kyokai Production
Kenji Mizoguchi The Life of a Film Director
Taking parts are:
Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshikata Yoda
Masashige Narusawa, Kumeko Urabe
Matsutaro Kawaguchi, Eiji Nakano
Eitaro Shindo, Dai Arakawa
Takako Irie, Ganjiro Nakamura
Masaichi Nagata, Goro Kontaibo
Seiichiro Uchikawa, Kyoko Kagawa
Michiyo Kogure, Isuzu Yamada
Machiko Kyo, Nobuko Otowa
Daisuke Ito, Kazuo Miyagawa
Yasuzo Masumura, Ayako Wakao
Kiyohiko Ushihara, Kakuko Mori
Eitaro Ozawa, Eijiro Yanagi, and others.
Photographed by Yoshiyuki Miyake
Sound Recording by Shinpei Kikuchi
Edited by Mitsuo Kondo & Keiko Fujita
Produced and Directed by Kaneto Shindo
At 58 years of age...
on August 24, 1956 at 1:55 am...
Kenji Mizoguchi died.
Kyoto Municipal Hospital
I quite understand your wishes...
but we can't allow you to enter the hospital.
It disturbs the patients.
We'll just stay in the passage...
that is all we need.
Kyoto is closely linked with the memory of Mizoguchi.
He died in this hospital.
We are making a film of his life...
for the last 10 days we have been interviewing.
I thought one could take only the exterior...
the 4th floor passage is quite enough.
We will just shoot it as is... no lighting.
We won't bother anyone.
No photographers are ever allowed...
no matter who they may be.
The nurses are busy. The patients cannot be disturbed...
Private Ward 4th Floor
Kenji Mizoguchi's Grave
"Street of Shame"
Your films very often were about women...
Interview of Mizoguchi: February 11, 1950
Yes, but at first it was not my idea.
Director Minoru Murata who died 10 years ago...
was almost a brother to me...
and his films were about...
the world of men.
We couldn't both treat the same subject.
The company gave me the woman's side.
And it was commercially wise.
Then as often happens...
I came to like the idea.
I read in an article you wrote...
after making "Osaka Elegy" and "Sisters of the Gion"...
both masterpieces in my opinion...
You felt you had gained a better understanding of human nature.
Youth seems to be a time of action...
making a good film is not directed by reason...
but by an inner passion.
I had gained a deeper understanding of human beings.
Although even now I may not have understood them.
That is how I feel...
Masashige Narusawa: Scenarist
Mizoguchi was born over there...
on May 16, 1898...
his parents' first son.
This was the neighborhood.
A temple atmosphere.
After his father's business failed...
they moved to the popular district of Asakusa.
He was taught a bit at home...
then went to a public school where he met Kawaguchi.
Matsutaro Kawaguchi: Writer
Is the school where you met still standing?
I have no idea. I must find out.
I passed by the former brothel district of Yoshiwara...
the other day and had a look around.
Everything has changed.
Ishihama School Founded June 1907
Mizoguchi entered the same year.
Nothing forms a man as much as his childhood.
For that reason I'm sure...
we shall never find another director as completely Japanese...
as Mizoguchi was.
Of course we shall always have good directors.
But none able...
to depict the very essence of our mentality...
and show us as we are.
He was completely Japanese.
Typical Japanese.
I think it was just that characteristic...
the Western cinema world admired in him.
Yes, the special quality...
of his films in which there is no trace of foreign influence.
That is what they admire.
You don't find that in anyone else.
His older sister took care of him. What was she like?
They say their father is from aristocracy or high ranking samurai.
But he ended up a craftsman who roofs a house with slates.
Though I'm not sure.
Their father was a drunkard who did not like to work.
Then viscount Matsudaira...
met Suzuko, Mizoguchi's sister...
Was she a geisha in Nihonbashi?
That's right.
Where was Viscount Matsudaira's Tokyo House located?
I think he lived in Shimoshinmei.
Before that, I think he lived in Teppozu.
Wasn't his home town Shinshu Ueda?
That's correct.
So she became his mistress.
Then she left Nihonbashi,
and moved to Viscount's mansion in Teppozu.
She lived there?
As his mistress, yes.
But didn't she marry him?
Eventually, yes. Legally married.
So she became Suzuko Matsudaira.
She supported her brother in many ways.
Many of Mizoguchi's films depict grudge against a father figure.
None depicts the father favorably.
I think the father in "Osaka Elegy" is modeled after his own.
Here he passed his early years.
After finishing school he went to Morioka...
but he soon came back.
At 17 he worked for a pattern designer...
but he didn't stay.
He enrolled in the painting school of Seiki Kuroda.
At 19 he worked for a newspaper in Kobe...
that lasted a year.
It was by chance he began his cinema career.
He lived near the Nikkatsu studios.
He became a friend of an actor...
named Tomioka...
who knew Wakayama, a director.
He joined Nikkatsu very easily.
His ambition was to act but he was made an assistant director,
an errand boy.
It was June 1920. He was 22.
After varied attempts he found his chosen path.
Nikkatsu Mukojima Studio Glass Stage
Now it is a glass stage, but it was a tent when I started.
There was no glass stage.
Gengo Otsubo: Cameraman (Nikkatsu)
It was before the age of the glass stage.
Is my story too old?
Not at all. Please go ahead.
Today's lighting is good in its way.
But in the days of the tent, it used to open up when the wind blew.
Even when the tent stayed, the wind blew open the joints...
and let the sunlight in to shine on the stage.
We had to continue shooting that way.
But we naturally wanted to improve,
and the glass stage was built in 1913.
That makes sense.
It was the sunlight.
The sunlight through the glass.
Today artificial lighting is used. There's no glass ceiling.
In the past we shot under the sunlight through the glass.
When the weather...
Changes from cloudy to sunny,
each time a cameraman must adjust by himself,
since we did not have assistants back then.
You never know when the sky changes.
There was no motor back then, so with the right hand...
busy rotating the camera, we had to adjust like this.
Panning was done differently, too. Like this, with the left hand...
while the right hand was still rotating.
I think cameramen today are better off. We did everything by ourselves.
From shooting to developing.
Cameramen did everything.
It was a lot of responsibility, and made the job exciting for cameramen.
"What is the result of the scenes I have shot?"
The moment of seeing the developed film is especially exciting.
Since I was developing myself...
I was able to adjust the process based on the condition of the shooting.
How many days did it take to shoot one film?
Probably a week.
That must have felt like a second.
Yeah. But that was the standard back then. 10 days at the most.
Although it took much longer to shoot "Dokuro no mai".
Kiyohiko Ushihara: Director
I began working at Shochiku the year it was founded.
The studio was a tent.
But soon they built a glass studio.
The East and South walls were glass...
the rest was wood.
After they built entirely in glass...
right up to the roof. A square glass box.
What was Mizoguchi like?
He was a gentle person.
Really?
He was fond of women and sake, but he was gentle nonetheless.
So he loved women.
Yes. He was a lady-killer.
- Did you ever talk to him? - Yes.
- You worked at the same studio. - Yes.
I don't know anything about his personal life.
He was a good person. Honest and sweet.
He had a deep voice, but his manner was soft like a woman.
He was great.
He was Eizo Tanaka's assistant, right?
Right.
Eizo Tanaka...
a talented new director at Nikkatsu, made...
"The Kyoya Collar Shop", a naturalistic film by far his best.
Mizoguchi was his assistant.
In 1920 Tanizaki and Kurihara made "Amateur Club".
In 1919 Kaeriyama made "The Glow of Life".
In 1921 Osanai made "Souls on the Road".
These 3 films mark the growth of...
the cinema into an art.
In two short years Mizoguchi became a director.
At that time men still played women's roles.
When the camera lens proved too cruel...
18 famous actors including Kinugasa...
were forced to retire.
The studio was short-handed and Mizoguchi was promoted.
His first film was a melodrama.
"The Resurrection of Love" 1922
In one year beginning September 1923...
he made 7 films.
Dramas, action and horror films, he tried his hand at every genre.
When we go on location...
we'd bring 2 scenarios.
The same actor would wear 2 sets of costumes,
so we could shoot 2 different films in the vicinity of one location.
Shooting 2 films on the same location was a common practice back then.
When Henry Kotani came back...
from the USA, he came to the Kamata studio in a motorcade,
where director Kako and I were shooting in a tent.
Henry's car entered the gate.
The tent was by the gate.
Henry got off the car in a gallant manner, took the reflector from...
the assistant's hand, climbed on...
the wall, and adjusted the reflector like this.
The light came this way...
It was around Osanai that...
the pioneers of the cinema gathered.
Daisuke Ito: Director
Osanai's admirers both young and old...
including even Tsutsumi who became a director...
were capable actors, technicians and writers.
They could do everything.
I wrote mainly for the theatre.
I showed him my plays...
long before Osanai began in films.
It was he who guided my first steps.
What was the script like in the early days?
At the Nikkatsu studios...
the director stood beside the camera and read it.
The actors followed his instructions.
Perhaps it was Kaeriyama...
who wrote the first real script.
I had no idea of how to make one although I read magazines...
There was a "How to Write Scenario" book...
that gave instructions.
It seemed hopeless.
Seeing Italian films, however, taught me.
Mizoguchi's 5th film "Failure's Song Is Sad"...
bore his future stamp.
The Nikkatsu studios in 1923...
was destroyed by earthquake and the company moved to Kyoto.
When I think of my relationship with...
Okochi, Osanai, Aoyama, Kaji Yamamoto, and Tomoda,
I feel that I had been destined to meet them.
Was Mizoguchi at Taishogun, too?
Yes. Since the earthquake destroyed the studios at Mukojima.
Everyone moved to Taishogun to make both modern and period films.
Taishogun
Nikkatsu Taishogun Studio
Was it around here?
Yes, the gate was here.
Kenichi Okamoto: Lighting technician
Over there was an empty lot where location cars were parked.
The studio was here from 1923...
until about 1928 or 1929.
In 1930 shooting was already done in Uzumasa studios.
The move to Kyoto...
greatly influenced Mizoguchi.
Life in Tokyo had marked him...
Kyoto had an equally strong effect.
The mixed influence of these cities...
was the basis of his art.
At that time he directed...
all sorts of films...
nothing very impressive.
While making "Shining in the Red Sunset"...
something unusual happened.
He met Miss Ichijo.
Eiji Nakano: Actor
Can you tell us about "Shining in the Red Sunset"?
I was 19 or 20.
I followed the director's wishes, that's all.
But we worked only three days with him.
He had to stop because Miss Ichijo wounded his back.
Saegusa finished directing the picture.
The notorious crime of passion. Didn't they sack him?
He was put into hospital.
Newspapers reported the incident...
not in the film section...
but on the gossip page.
He was in disgrace. He locked himself up at home.
Was he told to?
Yes. Then he couldn't find a job.
For 6 months he did nothing.
So he did have a back wound?
Kumeko Urabe: Actress
But that was before he married.
Long before.
Were you there?
Yes. I lived at Mrs. Sakai's. You know her?
Actor Katsuragi lived there too...
and actress Harue Ichikawa. We were having...
a good time one evening.
Katsuragi was drinking...
we weren't drinking, just playing cards...
when all at once the wife of an actor called Sasaya...
told us, pale in the face, that Kenji had been injured.
At first we didn't understand.
Then we all went running to see.
Mizoguchi and Murata both loved brothels.
They adored them. They were real experts.
Murata too?
They liked the atmosphere.
Indeed. The best films of Mizoguchi...
are about fallen women.
It is hard to explain why.
Although there may be good reasons.
Wasn't Miss Ichijo a prostitute?
Yes. The kind called a "yatona" in Kyoto...
who paid house calls.
It happened in the bath.
Seiichiro Uchikawa: Assistant director
I offered to rinse off his back when I saw it.
He said,
"Without this kind of experience you don't know women. "
I wished the same thing had happened to me.
He was stabbed by "yatona", right?
It seems he ran away after it happened.
Which is quite understandable.
Crying with pain.
How very like him.
Never without his problems...
taking them all in stride.
He was a great man because...
he had ordinary problems...
yet created a myth about himself too.
"Paper Doll's Whisper" is the love story of modest people.
This film showed Mizoguchi's real worth.
"The Passion of a Woman Teacher" 1926
For the first time he worked with Kawaguchi,
who stayed with him all his life.
You were present during...
the Miss Ichijo incident.
After that he married.
You knew his wife Chieko?
She was my girlfriend...
who brought her home one day.
What did she do?
She was a dancer.
She worked in a dance hall in Osaka.
My girlfriend Chiyoko worked there too.
Chiyoko lived with me...
and danced in Osaka.
You and Chiyoko.
He and Chieko.
The girls got on well.
I lived with Mizoguchi too.
He was shooting in Kyoto.
I had been 3 or 4 months with Nikkatsu.
He lived above the public bath...
near the studio.
I had no money and no home. He took me in.
For 6 months we lived that way.
There was nothing but a futon and books.
Books everywhere.
A box for a table.
We had our meals out.
For 6 months we shared the same futon.
- You and he? - Yes.
When Chieko called...
I left them alone.
Chiyoko introduced them.
Could he dance?
No. I taught him for her sake.
It was through you he met Chieko...
and learned how to dance.
They soon began to quarrel.
Chieko wasn't divorced yet.
We met at the Nikkatsu studios in Kyoto.
I had come in as a trainee in 1924.
Masaichi Nagata: Producer
In 1925 I started working...
on the business side at Nikkatsu.
Mizoguchi had just been made a director.
Our connection was based on our work.
One day he decided to marry Chieko.
I learned that she was separated but not divorced.
We had to find a way to settle this matter.
Her husband was a good sort considering his shady life.
I talked it over and he agreed to a divorce.
Chieko and I were chorus girls in the same music hall...
in a lively district of Osaka.
We were good friends.
When did she marry him?
I don't know...
I really don't know.
One day at the public bath...
I heard my name. It was Chieko.
We called one another...
Tochi and Sagachi.
"Tochi" I heard and who do I see? Sagachi.
I asked what she was doing there.
She said she had married Mizoguchi...
and invited me to drop in. It was quite a surprise.
"Nihonbashi" was a Meiji period story by Kyoka Izumi.
Social unrest after the 1923 earthquake...
came to a crisis in 1929.
It was a bad moment.
"Home Town" 1930 First talkie
"Mistress of a Foreigner" 1930
"Metropolitan Symphony" marks his proletariat period.
One senses his relationship...
with Hayashi, a proletariat writer.
"Man of the Moment" 1932
He made all sorts of films, each with a different social setting.
It was after he made "The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia"
that he became strange.
He couldn't edit that film.
He left the Shinko company...
and for a year or two did nothing...
just stayed at home.
He made his comeback with "The Water Magician".
I was there during the worst of it.
What do you mean he was "strange"?
He lost his confidence.
It's true that his films are either...
master pieces or complete failures.
I went through the failures twice.
"The Water Magician" 1933
You were the image of a modern woman for the public.
Takako Irie: Actress
It was difficult to imagine you...
playing the role of a traditional entertainer.
The result surprised everybody.
Could you tell us about Mizoguchi at that time?
You already knew him then?
Yes. Since "Metropolitan Symphony".
But this was my first Meiji era film...
What enthusiasm. He loved...
to have everything perfect.
He had always been difficult.
Yet he always took time...
to explain it all to us.
Alas, we didn't always come up to his expectations.
What saved us was his sense...
of humor and enthusiasm.
He was 35 then.
Yes, he was young.
It was a youthful film. How old were you?
22, I think.
He had wanted to do this film for a long time.
Goro Kontaibo: Producer
She was a Nikkatsu star.
The most popular but not No. 1.
Her brother, a director...
thought it was unfair.
He thought she should be No. 1.
At Nikkatsu she was the ideal modern woman.
But Shinko wanted her to be more Japanese.
They said Nikkatsu didn't show the real Japan.
And the public was fed up.
Shinko had its own audience and...
Irie was to embody...
the traditional Japanese woman.
Shigeru Miki: Cameraman
There was no finished script for this film.
We worked from day to day.
Each shot was so concentrated and so dense that...
we were dead tired when we finished.
Another director would have spaced it out.
We were all exhausted.
You couldn't even count the number of shots.
He was like an orchestra conductor.
Did you enjoy working with him?
He had complete faith in his cameraman.
You just had to be worthy of his trust.
Tazuko Sakane: Script-girl, first woman director
We began working together in 1929...
at Nikkatsu studios in Kyoto.
You worked on "The Water Magician"?
Yes. I began as editor with that film.
There were many close-ups. Each shot was still short...
at that time.
Some were quite long though.
To edit we cut the negatives.
It was very risky, but they were skillful.
To think of it! We cut the negatives!
We were filming "The Jimpu Group".
I was making 1,000 yen a film.
I didn't draw a salary.
He needed money.
He hired me for a job saying,
"Here's 1,000 yen. Take your share... "
"I'll use the change for pocket money. "
He made 500 yen!
"You can do it in a day or two. "
I accepted and wrote a scene...
that it would take...
two days to shoot.
He made "The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate" for Daiichi.
Set again in Meiji times...
and he was depressed and felt trapped in that period.
I founded Daiichi company.
I told Mizoguchi and Kawaguchi my plans.
They got on well together.
"If we wish to succeed... "
"in our enterprise, we need friends. Alone, we are lost. "
He directed "Sisters of the Gion" and "Osaka Elegy", both masterpieces.
"Osaka Elegy" 1936
Yoshikata Yoda: Scenarist
We first worked together on "Osaka Elegy".
Although I had known him...
ever since he was an assistant at Nikkatsu.
Once he asked me to act...
then changed his mind. We were close friends.
I fell ill and had to leave Nikkatsu.
I needed a job and went to see him.
He immediately asked me to write a scenario...
based on Saburo Okada's book, "Mieko".
It was the story of a woman who worked in a cabaret.
An assistant director had suggested...
he make a film based on the novel.
Mizoguchi was terribly depressed...
and was looking around...
for an interesting job.
Besides he wanted to work with Isuzu Yamada.
She had just had a baby.
Up till then he had done Meiji period films...
based on the novels of Kyoka Izumi.
In my opinion he felt...
trapped by his nostalgia for the past...
and knew he must break away.
He was quite aware of this.
And was anxious to step...
into the present day.
I had already worked with him.
Isuzu Yamada: Actress
But "Osaka" was a turning point for me.
And I think it is his greatest film.
Thanks to this film I decided...
to make a career as an actress.
That is why this film...
is so important to me.
As you know Mizoguchi was hard to please.
He never told us precisely what to do.
"Think about it," he would say. And that is all.
I'll never forget that.
In one scene I was coming back from a police station.
The atmosphere was tense. I was to say...
"Oh, sukiyaki. I'd like to have some. "
For three days we went over it. He wasn't satisfied.
I was terrified...
and didn't even dare put on my coat.
I was half frozen in the bridge scene.
Trembling as I said my lines.
He came up behind me...
and put his coat on my shoulders.
Imagine for one so strict. I had tears in my eyes.
Eitaro Shindo: Actor
I made my first talkie with him.
His difficult character was well-known.
I was in the theatre then.
I asked him straight off...
if his reputation...
was in fact deserved.
He often discussed acting methods.
He said an actor must rely on more than...
his skills.
It was his personality that counted.
"Sisters of the Gion" 1936
At first it was the story of two sisters...
living among the entertainers of Osaka.
We wanted to portray...
the atmosphere of Osaka.
He changed his mind.
The new setting was Gion.
The teahouse district of Kyoto.
Narrow streets full of life.
Gion has two parts...
the lower side is where geishas and prostitutes live.
This was to be the setting.
Including aspects of daily life as well as pleasure, it was a hard life.
Setting for "Sisters of the Gion"
You lived in a narrow street.
So you knew the setting.
Every city has these streets, you know.
But in Kyoto they have a special charm.
From the Last Scene of "Sisters of the Gion"
We slave away and are paid in insults.
What do they expect of us?
But why are we so badly treated?
Why do jobs like this exist?
I have had enough!
How come it hasn't died away! It should never have existed!
This "profession" must die away!
I was in love with a geisha named Omocha.
I suggested that Mizoguchi use her as the model for "Sisters of the Gion".
Isuzu Yamada as Omocha
I wanted him to see that stories based...
on women could have present day settings.
That he didn't need to go to Tokyo for inspiration.
That Chikamatsu and Saikaku had found it here in Kyoto.
You went to look at Gion?
Yes. But as you know...
the story takes place in the lower part of Gion.
The people there complained saying that Gion...
wasn't at all like that.
Every day they rewrote...
the script.
Minor changes?
Heavens, no. They changed everything.
We learned at the last minute...
that our lines were changed. Mizoguchi and Yoda even...
made changes as they were shooting.
I wonder even now if the last scene...
was planned or written...
at the last moment.
Besides it was a talkie. You can imagine!
As I am from that region...
I had no problem learning new lines in dialect.
Scraps of dialogue were pasted everywhere. Even written on a mirror.
I read as I acted.
He knew how to drink.
I didn't drink at all, yet...
He always asked for me.
He gave me a part in "Sisters of the Gion".
The Owner of Yoshida Teahouse
I am looking up all the people who were close to him.
At that time he was always with... Mr...
Yoda, the scenarist.
Mizoguchi smoked constantly...
and chewed his cigarettes.
When he was a bit tight...
he would caress my hair.
He didn't do that...
to anyone else.
He felt at ease with me. We got on well.
He loved to tease me. Naturally people got the...
wrong idea about our relationship.
"The Straits of Love and Hate" 1937
Daiichi was broken up leaving 2 films.
He joined Shinko and made "Straits"
He said in his signature way...
"The gist of melodrama is reunion. "
He told me to write such a script.
This was how "Straits" came into being.
He would give us a script...
then change it the day we were shooting.
Fumiko Yamaji: Actress
We gathered around a blackboard...
learning new lines at the last minute.
The old lines still in your head.
Once for a drunk scene in a bistro...
I went to a small bar at the station...
just to see what it was like.
I bought drink for a barmaid...
to get her drunk.
Films were his whole life.
And he made us give ours too.
In the morning I would arrive first on the set.
But he would be there, all alone in the dark.
Toshima District, Tokyo
He rented this house and began working at Shinko.
He made "Ah! My Hometown" and "The Song of the Camp",
and then joined Shochiku.
"The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum" 1939
Shochiku wanted him to use Shotaro Hanayagi, a Kabuki actor.
But men no longer played female roles in films.
So they made "Chrysanthemum"
It was set in the world of Kabuki...
that I knew nothing about. It was a hard job.
They used to call us prop-men.
Dai Arakawa: Set decorator We passed out pikes and battle-axes.
I had worked with Inoue who was hard to please.
So when I started with Mizoguchi...
I knew what to expect.
I was lucky.
My father worked at the Kabuki theatre.
I knew the work.
Mizoguchi liked me.
I learned a lot from him.
Today he would pass for a perfectionist.
His taste in props was highly personal.
As he gained experience in curios...
especially after he had been cheated, he started to...
be a good judge.
Yoshiyuki Takatsu: President of Takatsu trading company
He once asked me to sell off the junk he had purchased by mistake.
But I told him to keep them as valuable reference...
so he can remember that he should never touch such junk in the future.
Matsuji Ohno: Set builder
In those days there was no set design.
Mizutani was the first real designer...
Kyoto carpenters are famous.
Thanks to you, Mizutani could do so well.
He treated us as equals.
Hiroshi Mizutani: Set designer
He alone could do it.
He wasn't just anyone.
You could do a good job with Mizoguchi and Mizutani.
Clip from "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum"
Shall we share it?
Where are you going?
To the parlor.
Here is fine.
Here?
Why not. Let's eat here.
Take some. Don't be shy.
Have some.
It is delicious.
Kakuko Mori: Actress
The first day on the set...
I was hopelessly lost. I didn't know how to move.
The set was the inside of a house.
I asked him what I ought to do.
"Forget the movements and your lines," he said.
"Think about the role. "
"If you get the feeling right, the rest will come. "
That was good advice.
I was playing a woman.
I wasn't sure of myself...
because I usually played young girls.
I had to act out a woman's feelings.
I still remember even now.
Mizoguchi had a special interest...
in the part you played.
He had tried out someone else.
And he called you when she didn't work out.
- The other actress was... - Reiko Kitami?
Yes, it was she.
She was supposed to hold a baby in her arms.
"You don't do it well because you aren't a mother. "
"You aren't even married. "
So after 3 days of rehearsal, he dismissed her and...
hired Kakuko Mori.
As she had been introduced...
by Hanayagi, Mizoguchi couldn't say no.
They did a screen test...
and Mizoguchi hired her immediately.
Hanayagi helped me a lot.
In the watermelon scene for instance...
he showed me how to take out the pips...
the way women did back then. Thanks to him...
I learned many things.
That character was for him...
the essence of the female, that he wished...
to portray honestly...
going deeper than mere beauty and femininity.
Perhaps she was the image of his ideal woman.
I can only guess but...
I know his married life...
was the opposite to this ideal. It was...
a constant struggle.
He was very tense.
Hideo Tsumura: Critic While shooting...
"Chrysanthemum", we went out for a meal.
It was the only time he invited me and...
probably Hanayagi paid for us all.
Your friendship dates from then?
No, not yet.
Ozu had just finished "The Toda Brothers and Sisters".
It was in 1941. After the screening...
we had a round-table talk...
for Star magazine, with...
Ozu, Mizoguchi, Shimizu and me. On that occasion...
we got to know one another. Our friendship...
started after the war.
In 1940 he rented a house that was...
surrounded by a hedge.
It was his second last home.
He left it near the end of his life.
26th Centenary of Japan November 1940
He couldn't get rid of his class-consciousness.
To be awarded the Minister of Education's prize...
was a moral victory for him.
He needed to be recognized and complimented by...
government officials.
He had a Meiji era mentality.
"Respect the great, despise the humble. "
"Woman of Osaka" 1940
It was my first film with him.
I knew his reputation.
Kinuyo Tanaka: Actress
Obviously, I was scared.
According to Yoda, his scenarist, he was...
at top form for this film.
That may be so.
You played the wife of a Bunraku actor.
She was a strong woman...
who even left her husband for a time. Mizoguchi said...
you were marvelous in the part.
To get the part down and understand her character...
I went to Kyoto. The script-girl, Sakane...
came to my hotel with a huge parcel of books.
Like that.
She said, "Read them. "
Mizoguchi had sent them...
asking me to read them carefully.
I had already read and studied the script.
It was set in the...
Bunraku theatre world.
About the foyer, dressing room and her husband's stage.
The books were treatises on Bunraku...
with difficult technical words.
What astonished me was finding an artist's life...
that was so familiar.
It was an eye-opener.
We arrived in Kyoto in April...
but only started shooting in summer.
What a lot of work.
First I read.
Then I went to Osaka to see Bunraku...
and drink in the atmosphere...
and rigor of this world at first hand.
It was a real martyrdom. I was used to being...
treated like a star.
Seeing how it was, I thought...
I'll never make it.
The dialogue was changed... as we shot...
not because the script was bad...
on the contrary...
but what was written didn't seem natural...
when it was acted...
and Mizoguchi wouldn't accept it. For that reason...
Yoda was on the set.
And they rewrote it all.
One artificial move by an actor...
was cause for consultation, and Yoda had to rewrite.
Was cause for consultation, and Yoda had to rewrite.
"The Life of an Actor" 1941
Then he made 3 films of artist's lives.
Ganjiro Nakamura: Actor I was 30 when he hired me.
I was a Kabuki actor and I wanted to make movies.
I wanted him to think of me as such...
to try and forget that I was a Kabuki star.
He told me, "Don't overact. "
"Act naturally. Let yourself go. "
We rehearsed...
Now we shoot, I thought,
but we didn't.
I asked what was wrong. "Your eyes," he said.
"You're overdoing it. "
"You act with the pupils. " I was dumbfounded.
He wanted me to control the pupils of my eyes.
The more confidence he had in an actor...
the more he expected.
Less eye movement, I understand...
but the pupil, it can't be controlled.
When I saw "An Osaka Story", made after his death...
I wondered about that.
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