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Orizuru Osen

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Orizuru Osen
Scene from the film
Directed byKenji Mizoguchi
Written byTatsunosuke Takashima
Based onBaishoku Kamo Nanban
by Kyōka Izumi
Produced byMasaichi Nagata
StarringIsuzu Yamada
Daijiro Natsukawa
Ichiro Yoshizawa
Narrated bySuisei Matsui
Midori Sawato
CinematographyMinoru Miki
Production
company
Daiichi Eiga
Distributed byShochiku
Release date
  • January 20, 1935 (1935-01-20) (Japan)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Orizuru Osen (折鶴お千) (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.[citation needed]

Cast

  • Isuzu Yamada as Osen
  • Daijiro Natsukawa as Sokichi Hata
  • Ichiro Yoshizawa as Ukiki
  • Shin Shibata as Kumazawa
  • Genichi Fujii as Matsuda
  • Eiji Nakano as the Professor

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 singled 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. Vol. 50. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. p. 1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link)