Kenji Mizoguchi‘s films were often concerned about the plight of oppressed women in Japanese society. His protagonists were often geishas, prostitutes, workers, street activists, housewives, and feudal princesses. In the Osaka Elegy, a switchboard operator’s boss wants to make her his mistress, but she is in love with a younger man. Forced to assist her beleaguered swindler father and destitute student brother, she gives up her honor for an ungrateful family.
Osaka Elegy
Aug 8, 2012
Wonderful clip. I’ve read that Mizoguchi, who was born in 1898, adored his 14-year-old sister Suzu, who after his father’s business failed, was put up for adoption and eventually sold to a geisha house . Mixoguchi felt that it was only through her sacrifices and his mother’s that he was able to study art, become a painter, and eventually direct films