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Just perfect...

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

'The Life of Oharu' is not an easy film to watch. There is barely even a fleeting moment of joy/happiness and towards the end, the viewer will find himself/herself getting really angry and outraged by the unthinkable oppression and atrocities and engulf our titular protagonist. Mizoguchi's sympathetic treatment of Oharu compels the viewer to feel beaten down and horrified by Oharu's miserable plight.The long line of tragedies in Oharu's life gets triggered by her decision to fall in love with Katsunosuke(played by the legendary Toshirô Mifune), a man of lower social standing. This element of forbidden love was also present in the previous Mizoguchi film that I watched namely 'The Story of Last Chrysanthemum'. The story arc of Otoku in that film to a some extent resembles the arc of Oharu in this one in terms of the mental and physical torture that they are both subjected to. Oharu makes an effort to conform to society's deplorable expectations, but even then gets nothing to show for it and gets discarded. This is because once she falls in social standing and gets sold off by her family, she ceases to be a human being in the eyes of society. There is a lot of references to trade and business in 'The Life of Oharu' which is relevant because Oharu over the course of her life becomes nothing more than a commodity to be sold from one customer to the next in the patriarchal society of 17th century Japan.Mizoguchi technical mastery is again on show in 'The Life of Oharu'. Some of the long takes and extended tracking shots are truly remarkable. Mizoguchi had the ability to suggest a plethora of things like passage of time, a change in mood, etc. with one little pan movement of the camera or with just the camera placement and those features are on show here too. The interior sets are beautifully designed and the haunting music by Ichirō Saitō is used craftily from time to time to set/change the mood. Kinuyo Tanaka has to be admired for lending the sympathy inducing tender innocence to Oharu. Her performance in the scenes depicting the later stages of Oharu's life is jaw-dropping in its authenticity and humanity.To conclude, I have to reiterate that 'The Life of Oharu' is not for everyone. One has to be in a specific mood to be able to endure the emotionally crushing narrative and storytelling of the film. But having said that, I still believe that it needs to be watched as Oharu represents numerous women(of Japan and beyond) in history and present times whose lives were and are still getting destroyed due to an oppressive society which denigrates women. It is said that Mizoguchi's obsession with capturing the misery of women in the face of oppression had its roots in his own childhood as his own sister who raised him was sold by their father. One can sense a personal grief, a personal intimacy in the style of storytelling in this particular film. Highly Recommended.

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese master of world cinema, renowned for his lyricism and poetic imagery of nature. He had the talent of positioning the viewer as an observer through creative camera movement and composition. He created elegant films that depicted the circumstances in which Japanese women had to live, and to make choices. When Japanese films first arrived to Europe in the early 1950's, he was instantly praised as the greatest master of Japan; until the year of 1954 when Akira Kurosawa made Seven Samurai. Kurosawa changed everything the Europeans had so admired about Japanese cinema; exoticism, beauty and silence of life. But still, even to this date, Kenji Mizoguchi is considered as a great master of his country. Mizoguchi defined what Japanese cinema was all about. He brought Japan among other nations, outside of Asia.Even that Kenji Mizoguchi started making films in the 1920's, he made his most celebrated films during the rising of Japanese cinema, in the early 1950's. Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of the Pale Moon after the Rain, 1953) might just be his most well known work, and it is quite perfect with its synthesis of picture and sound, reconstruction of the epoch and the poetic imagery. His films of this era were characterized by strong aesthetic styling, poetry and beauty. But also by postwar disillusions, darkness and the price of war. They were stories set in feudal Japan, during the 16th and 17th century, but were allegorical for postwar Japan. The Life of Oharu is much more strictly tied to its own time, compared to Ugetsu, but it also succeeds in being a timeless classic with its portrayal of injustice and contempt.A samurai's daughter, Oharu, falls in love with a lower-class servant. After getting caught she and her family get deported from their village. When the local Lord is in need of a concubine to produce him an heir, Oharu gets a second chance. But after the new Lord has been born, Oharu is once again deported with only a small payment. The film follows the road of her life which is full of misfortune and darkness.The title of the film is quite revealing with regards to the content of the film. It portrays the life of Oharu, full of agony and despair. In her life, Oharu only gets three moments of joy all of which are eventually taken away from her: first when she falls in love with the servant; she thinks that she has found the love of her life. But gets disappointed as the society can't approve relationships regardless of wealth and status. Then when she is promised a better life as a concubine; she thinks that a more affluent life waits for her but only gets abused and betrayed. Finally, when she is promised to see her son; the son of the Lord, to whom she gave birth to, a better life should await for her. But in turn gets once again deported and becomes a beggar.Kenji Mizoguchi doesn't embellish the misery one bit but he doesn't highlight or point out things for us either. There isn't a slightest error of exaggeration in the film. The people Oharu becomes acquainted with are all spiritually poor and horrible, with a few exceptions. The few benevolent people are determined to die or lose it all. For instance the dance fan-maker Oharu marries, after trying prostitution and being a busker. The man loves her, regardless of her past, but gets murdered for no reason. Most of the other men treat Oharu like dirt, coldly and without compassion. But of course as a historical film The Life of Oharu tells more about the time it was made in than the time it takes place in. Through this story Mizoguchi touches many unmentioned taboos of the Japanese society in the 1950's.In The Life of Oharu a woman doesn't have a change for better life; social rising is impossible. The only way to improve one's life, for a woman, is to marry an affluent man. But not even that works for Oharu. Since her man gets killed and she is once again doomed. This ruthless depiction of the society still contains lyric flashes of the transience and sudden beauty of life. These images are contrasts for the social realism, which isn't naturalism by any means. For its style, the film comes close to poetic realism of its own.In addition to these insightful themes of the transience, beauty and severity of life, The Life of Oharu also has strong criticism for capitalism. In the art of cinema, prostitution is often a reflection of market economy and free trade; women are free to sell themselves as they wish, but actually are forced to do so. For a film with a strong take on like this, it's no surprise that its themes are strictly social; disregard, money, hierarchy, avarice, power and injustice. One excellent example is the scene where a man enters to a brothel. First the men in charge try to drive him away but after seeing his great amount of money, decide to treat him like a king.The contempt of women is part of Mizoguchi's social criticism but a parallel can be drawn to feminism as well. The director has often been called a 'pre-feminist' since he depicted the desolation that characterizes the lives of many women. He made several precisely considered shots that examined the circumscribed choices of women in the Japanese society. In a world like this there is no hope left for women. The life of Oharu is the road for the damned. The road to hell, along which there is nothing good and only death awaits in the end. Her life is a path built on graves of those who tried and died before.

An ageing prostitute, Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), walks slowly through the back streets of her patch, she's tired and cold and bemoans the lack of business, she gathers around a fire with her colleagues for some warmth and some chat. One of her colleagues asks her about her past as a courtesan, but emotionally scarred, Oharu is unable to discuss it and goes on her way. She enters a local temple, where there are many statues of Buddha's disciples, these faces bring back memories of her turbulent life, one in particular triggers flashbacks of better times….Once as a courtesan Oharu had enjoyed the splendour of fine things with her parents. One day Oharu is tricked into a meeting with a nobleman by his servant, Katsunosuke(Toshiro Mifune), once alone he comes clean and pledges his love for her, at first she spurns him because of their different social status, but then she pledges her undying love to him, but their tryst is stopped in its tracks by a court official who catches them together. Oharu and her family are banished into exile, Katsunosuke fares much worse and is beheaded for his crime. Now broke and desolate, her father threatens to sell her to make ends meet, however an envoy from Lord Harutaka Matsudaira spots her and offers her the opportunity of becoming the Lord's concubine, as his present wife is sickly and unable to bear him a child. She finally agrees and dutifully bears him the son and heir he requested. Contrivances and petty jealousies then conspire to see her thrown out of her new home right after the birth, this however is just the beginning of her tortuous labyrinthine passage through life….Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1952 Venice Film festival, The Life of Oharu is an adaptation of Saikaku Ihara's novel "Koshuku Ichidai Onna that follows familiar territory for the great Mizoguchi, who is perhaps best known for his tales of devastating loss and injustice, in particular when they are from the woman's point of view. Oharu is truly, an epic and compelling chronicle of a journey of brief highs and truly shocking lows for the main protagonist, Mizoguchi's film is a powerful critique of the Feudal class structure and how it unjustly destroyed many lives of ordinary people. Despite its Feudal setting it still feels very relevant and contemporary , its themes being timeless. The film is awash with elegance and is beautifully filmed by Yoshimi Hirano and Yoshimi Kono with all the flowing movement you might expect from the directors work, it gives life and symmetry to the wonderful period sets. The acting is also superb in its simplicity, some of their merest movements providing great power to the final product. Mizoguchi constantly plays with the viewers emotions without ever becoming preachy, just when you think Oharu has turned a corner, we are devastated by another unflinching twist of fate, its this pattern which gives the film an overall downbeat feeling, that shows Mizoguchi's mastery of the medium.

Mizoguchi's exquisite compositions and direction, along with the fine pacing and excellent acting, make this a must-see, but I don't think I'll see it again anytime soon.To Western eyes, anyway, this story of a 17th Century woman's downfall -- from growing up in the Imperial Court to dying as a broken streetwalker, is affecting but frustrating.Mizoguchi's point about the cruel limitations on Japanese women's lives during this period is made clearly, but Oharu's passivity is maddening. People cheat, seduce, betray, and ruin her again and again -- and she just bows her head and takes it.This may be historically and culturally accurate, but it doesn't improve the story, which becomes a bit monotonous at times.OHARU is a fine film, but as characters I prefer the spunkier, better-characterized prostitutes of STREET OF SHAME, the director's final film.