Being a huge fan of Ozu and Kurosawa I finally came around to watching Kenji Mizoguchi's films. Unfortunately here in the UK only two are available. However I am very lucky that this is one of them 'Life of Oharu' is a stunning feature film, one which could never be matched in todays cinema. Kinuyo Tanaka takes on the daunting task of portraying a tragic, complex and engrossing character. Oharu spans from the ages of 18-50 and Tanaka manages to pull off convincing performances at all these ages. We are taken through (as the title would suggest) the life of a young woman named Oharu. It begins with Oharu as an old woman, a fifty year old prostitute who has problems getting clients. She enters a temple one night and remembers her first love, and the start of her descent. Her first love is forbidden as she is from a well respected family and he is a poor and humble samurai. He is executed and she and her parents are banished, in a truly moving scene the family follows them over a bridge and are told they may go no further. Next Oharu is hired as a concubine to a powerful lord. She bears him a child, but she is soon thrown out as she becomes attached to the child. Wherever she looks for love she fails, with a husband who is killed and a life that just spirals into oblivion. What makes this film so tragic is that Oharu is completely innocent, falling victim to love that is beyond her control. Like all great tragedies we know what is to come, and it is the inability to stop it that drags the audience in. Mizoguchi's beautifully composed a masterpiece here. A great film that has a well rounded set of characters that in any other episodic drama such as this may seem hollow. Mizoguchi handles each important moment in Oharu's life with complete confidence and artistic control. There are also a number of comic scenes that help ease the depression and show that life is not always doom and glume. The film doesn't preach or hammer home its point, it shows what happens and subtly gets its point across. One of the best films I have ever seen and a real treat for any film fan. Don't let this one escape you, and I can only hope more of Mizoguchi's films are released on these shores.
Review of The Life of Oharu
