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.