Story of the Last Chrysanthemums

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi Kenji Mizoguchi

Overview

Story of the Late Chrysanthemum (Zangiku monogatari) was the only film made in 1939 by the astonishingly prolific Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi). The plot, based on an ancient legend, concerns the son of a renowned Kabuki actor. When the son falls in love with a servant girl, his father violently opposes the union. This, coupled with several impulsive decisions by the younger people, eventually results in tragedy. Like many of Mizoguchi's best works, this dwells upon the adverse results stemming from class consciousness and the depersonalization of women.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/13/2016
UPC:	0715515186018
Original Release:	1939
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Time:	2:23:00
Sales rank:	16,550

Special Features

New interview with critic Phillip Lopate about the evolution of director Kenji Mizoguchi's style

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kakuo Mori	Actor
Shotaro Hanayagi	Kikunosuke Onoue
Gonjuro Kawarazaki	Kikugoro Onoue
Kokichi Takada	Fukusuke Nakamura
Yoko Umemura	Osata

Technical Credits

Yoshikata Yoda

Kenji Mizoguchi	Director
Senji Ito	Score Composer
Hiroshi Mizutani	Production Designer
Yoshikata Yoda	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

A mid-career masterpiece from the great Mizoguchi, whose focus on the mistreatment of women in Japanese society was filtered through the experience of his sister's prostitution, it's known in Japan as a shinpa tragedy, one concerned with a woman who endures her fate in tears. Here, the forbidden love between a young man from a powerful family of kabuki actors and a low-caste wet nurse forms the basis for one of the director's most moving works. When the talented but undisciplined young actor Shotaro Hanyagi is banished from the family for refusing to abandon the woman, on her advice, they leave their native Tokyo that he might perfect his technique, far from his family's influence. The first film that the director felt was truly his own, it employs the fluid sequence takes and crabbing, or diagonal tracking shots, of which he was one of the medium's masters. Forced to shoot the 40-year-old actor in long shots to make him appear younger for the earlier scenes, the director was so impressed by the detached, meditative quality they afforded, that they would become a mark of his style.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello