Fiction
DVD
Availability
Details
PUBLISHED
DESCRIPTION
1 videodisc (136 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet ([20] pages : illustrations ; 18 cm.)
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
SERIES
Criterion collection #664
NOTES
Originally released as a motion picture in 1952
A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society throughout its history, Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu) had already been directing movies for decades when he made The Life of Oharu; in 1952. But this epic portrait of an inexorable fall from grace, starring the incredibly talented Kinuyo Tanaka as an imperial lady-in-waiting who gradually descends to street prostitution
Based on a novel by Saikaku Ihara
Special features: Dudley Andrew on The life of Oharu: Mizoguchi's art and the Demimonde (an illustrated audio essay featuring Andrew), Commentary by Dudley Andrew; The travels of Kinuyo Tanaka (a 2009 film by Koko Kajiyama documenting Tanaka's 1949 goodwill tour of the United States). Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez
Story editor, Isamu Yoshii ; cinematography by Yoshimi Hirano ; musical director, Ichiro Saito ; production design, Hiroshi Mizutani
Kinuyo Tanaka, Hisako Yamane, Toshiro Mifune, Jukichi Uno, Ichiro Sugai, Eitaro Shindo, Akira Ooizumi, Masao Shimizu, Daisuke Kato, Toranosuke Ogawa, Eijiro Yanagi, Yuriko Hamada, Haruyo Ichikawa, Komako Hara, Kikue Mouri, Sadako Sawamura, Toshiaki Konoe, Kinnosuke Takamatsu, Benkei Shiganoya, Unpei Yokoyama, Tsukie Matsuura
MPAA rating: Not rated
DVD; NTSC; region 1; 1.37:1 aspect ratio; PCM mono
In Japanese; with English subtitles