jkolj
Film Image by Kenji Mizoguchi
Oharu
is walking through a brothel in the middle of the night where one woman is forcing a patron into a room for a romp. She meets up with a group of other female night workers and they sit around a fire to keep warm. There, these woman ask curiously about how Oharu's path turned so dramatically, from living in the palace as the king's concubine, to her disgraceful fall, becoming a prostitute turning tricks in the streets with them.
Director
Kenji Mizoguchi witnessed his own sister being sold by his parents to be a piece of flesh in service to men when he was young. I suppose this led to his creating this period piece set in the 1600s that looks into the fate of a woman whose existence seems to be at the mercy of others.
As Oharu reflects on her life, we glimpse her past. Oharu's father is a samurai working for a respectable family, she, a beautiful and delicate young woman lives a pampered and sheltered life, well guarded within the confines of her home and group of belonging. She is also receiving letters from "appropriate" suitors courting her. Very early in the film though, a man of lower standing lures Oharu into a local motel and reveals his undying love for her. She initially resists but ultimately gives in, and just as she does, they are both caught.
This
situation is considered illegal and Oharu's family is judged as having acted in a shameful and unacceptable manner, they are kicked out of the village to live at the edge without family or support. The servant who declared his love is killed with a sword to the neck, he screams Oharu's name as they chop off his head. This is the beginning of countless difficulties that Oharu is set to experience through the course of the film.
Her father blames her for their misfortune, and although she initially seems to redeem herself in his eyes by being chosen to be the king's mistress and bare him a child, which means money would start pouring in for her family, she is soon returned, without her son and with nothing to her name. Oharu’s life is a mesh of seemingly great fortune and luck, followed by painful situational changes that lead to embarrassment and despair. The many men in her world have a pronounced influence on her circumstances, she is helpless to shape her own life.
The
film covers an era of history where women are treated as property and simple objects of procreation and pleasure. It does so through the perspective of someone who must endure these injustices and find some sense of dignity within the crazy demands made of her body and being.
Film stills by Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu
Oharu is sold and dispensed in service to the men that rule the day, and she has little say in the matter. Her strong will and powerful self image are constantly challenged and many times broken, hers is a journey of retaining these even in the most adverse of circumstances.
After
a series of harrowing events, there seems a glimmer of hope for happiness and stability when a man who owns a fan business falls in love and decides to marry her, despite her unsavory past. Oharu's new husband is gentle, generous and loving, but like the tides of life, this satisfying reality is washed away to be met by loss and heartache. Oharu can no longer deal and decides to give her life to God. In this world as well, she is ultimately rejected.
There is a haunting aura that lives throughout the film, accented by the choral and traditional Japanese music, the towering buildings that hover over the residents, the long flowing kimonos worn by both men and women that make them seem to glide across their landscape, and the eerie slow synchronicity that characters and extras move in as they walk, and even in dance.
The
pace of Mizoguchi’s film is temperate and meditative, relaying an ancient world where time moves differently. The storytelling is stoic, Oharu’s tragic life dramas, and there are many, aren’t sensationalized.
The
performances, particularly from the main lead, are controlled. There seems a refusal within Oharu to be perceived as pitiful even as her situations become dire. This proud response to a cold, harsh reality creates intense inner tension that becomes one of the film’s most successful pulls.
Film stills courtesy
Mizoguchi,
K. dir 1952. The Life of Oharu. Japan.
Read
More
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
