#949: MIZOGUCHI, Kenji: A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)

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MIZOGOUCHI, Kenji (Japan)
A Story from Chikamatsu [1954]
Spine #949
Blu-ray


One of a string of late-career masterworks made by Kenji Mizoguchi in the first half of the 1950s, A Story from Chikamatsu (a.k.a. The Crucified Lovers) is an exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. Based on a classic of eighteenth-century Japanese drama, the film traces the injustices that befall a Kyoto scroll maker's wife and his apprentice after each is unfairly accused of wrongdoing. Bound by fate in an illicit, star-crossed romance, they go on the run in search of refuge from the punishment prescribed them: death. Shot in gorgeous, painterly style by master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, this delicately delivered indictment of societal oppression was heralded by Akira Kurosawa as a "great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi."

102 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in Japanese
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2018
Director/Writers


Kenji Mizoguchi was 56 when he directed A Story from Chikamatsu.
Screenplay by Yoshikata Yoda.
Adaptation by Matsutaro Kawaguchi.
Based on the puppet play Daikyoji mukahi-goyomi by Monzaemon Chikamtsu.


The Extras

 The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film scholar Haden Guest.

Commentary

None.

Interview

With actor Kagawa.

Mizoguchi: The Auteur Behind the “Metteur en scène”

An illustrated audio essay by film scholar Dudley Andrew.

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