Kenji Mozoguchi and Japanese art

By sheer coincidence, I have watched some of the 'best' by Kenji Mozoguchi: Ugestsu (The Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon after Rain), Sansho the Bailiff, The Crucified Lovers (A Story of Chikamatsu). They are all black and white works shot between the 1930s to 1950s relating the endless struggles of human beings in feudal society when conditions were harsh and social convention worked constantly against human nature. As I watched them, I did not know a thing about the director and except for The Crucified Lovers, the stories themselves failed to make strong impressions over me. So when I read lately how highly he is regarded by some film scholars, I decide to find more of his works and reassess this 'master of cinema'.

Like his other films, the story of Mis Oyu is rather conventional, but when I watched it last night, I did seem to pick up a lot of things that had escaped me, such as his 'signature' styles which include the aethetic settings and the long still shots. The scene when the hero paid a visit with his aunt to Mrs Oyu when she was offering her first performance is a case in point. It began with a medium/long shot showing Mrs Oyu playing an instrument on the floor with a comment from the hero on the beauty of the 'stage' and her 'wonderful taste'. Then as if to underline his point of view, the camera moved outside the room and stayed in the corridor from which the 'stage' and music became the focal point. The camera stayed there for a long while to allow us to take stock of the story from afar and admire the beauty associated with Mrs Oyu.

There are many scenes where we are let to admire the beauty of season or nature. The opening sequence for instance has the hero wondering about the garden when he is waiting for the arrival of his future bride, and it seems simply the most natural thing for him to fall in love when Mrs Oyu made her first appearance under the new sprout leaves and beautiful cherry blossom. Then when he is struggling between confessing his love to her and supressing his feelings, the backdrop of the scence is an exquisitely maintained garden within the four walls of a typical Japanese house. Such scenes shot in composed manner are visual poems on beauty, natural or cultivated, and remind me what a master Japanese are in the craft of creating beauty with restrains - leaving the impression that such beauty is of minimum human interference.

I wish one day such films will be restored to its full former beauty. Because at their current state, it is difficult to comment on the use of lighting etc.