Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi travelling through Europe, 1953
Screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda, Actress Kinuyo Tanaka, and Kenji Mizoguchi visit Paris, 1953
Ugetsu or Ugetsu Monogatari , translated Tales of Ugetsu, Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain, or Tales of a Pale and Mysterious Moon After the Rain, is a 1953 Japanese historical drama and fantasy film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō. It is based on two stories in Ueda Akinari's 1776 book of the same name, combining elements of the jidaigeki genre with a ghost story.
Theatrical release poster
Director Kenji Mizoguchi made the effects of war a major theme of his film.
Katsura Imperial Villa was the basis for Katsuki Manor.
Shooting of Ugetsu