2014 Sacramento French Film Festival

I had planned on seeing several films at the 2014 Sacramento French Film Festival (SFFF) but the World Cup and Kenji Mizoguchi got in the way.  I watched two World Cup matches at the New Parkway.  I saw Germany vs. Ghana on June 21 and Brazil vs. Chile on June 28.  If not for those matches, I would have had more time to spend in Sacramento.  Both matches were well attended at the New Parkway.

As for Mizoguchi, I am referring to the current retrospective at the PFA.  I was particularly keen on seeing SFFF's Inside (with Béatrice Dalle) at 11:45 PM on June 28 but it conflicted with The 47 Ronin at the PFA.  I might have been able to get from Berkeley to Sacramento in time for the 11:45 showtime but I was exhausted after having woken up before 7 AM that day to get to the New Parkway in time for the Brazil-Chile match.

By the way, I have come to enjoy Sweet Bar Bakery in Oakland when I visit the New Parkway.  I like the coffee there.  Sweet Bar is a half block from the New Parkway at 24th and Broadway.

I was only able to spend one afternoon/evening at SFFF.  On June 22, I saw three feature films at the Crest Theater.

Attila Marcel starring Guillaume Gouix, Anne Le Ny, Bernadette Lafont & Hélène Vincent; directed by Sylvain Chomet; French with subtitles; (2013)
Camille Claudel 1915 starring Juliette Binoche; directed by Bruno Dumont; French with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Age of Panic starring Laetitia Dosch & Vincent Macaigne; directed by Justine Triet; French with subtitles; (2013)

Each feature was preceded by a short film.

Office du Tourisme; directed by Benjamin Biolay; French with subtitles; (2014)
As It Used to Be; directed by Clément Gonzalez; (2013)
La Gagne starring Olivier Benard, Simon Ferrante; directed by Patrice Deboosere; French with subtitles; (2014)

Office du Tourisme preceded Attila Marcel, As It Used to Be preceded Camille Claudel 1915 and La Gagne preceded Age of Panic.

I was a little disappointed that so many of this year's selections had been or will soon get a theatrical distribution.  Among the films that I have already seen because they have been released are On My Way, Stranger by the Lake, Young & Beautiful and Chinese Puzzle.  In addition, Queen Margot played at the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival, Suzanne screened at the 2013 French Cinema Now and The Murderer Lives at Number 21 was part of a Henri-Georges Clouzot series at the PFA in 2012.  That made 7 films in the lineup which I had already seen.  In addition, Venus in Fur (directed by Roman Polanski) opens at the Landmark Theaters in the Bay Area this summer.

It was difficult for me to piece together a schedule which included World Cup matches, Mizoguchi films, the drive time to and from Sacramento and French films which I had not seen.  The festival ran from June 20 to 22 and June 27 to 29 at the Crest Theater in Downtown Sacramento. 

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In the SFFF program guide, Attila Marcel was described it as continuing "to display his [director Sylvain Chomet's] fascination with the Two Jacques: Tati and Demy."  I saw more Demy than Tati but agree with the assessment.  Chomet's previous credits include The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist.

Paul Marcel (Guillaume Gouix) is a former piano prodigy.  Now, he is a 30something mute who lives with his spinster aunts Annie (Bernadette Lafont) and Anna (Hélène Vincent).  The two sisters run a dance studio where Paul accompanies the class.  Paul is traumatized by the death of his mother & father  (the eponymous Attila Marcel) when he was a baby although he cannot recall the incident.  Paul has partial memories of his father (portrayed by Gouix in flashback scenes) beating his mother and blames his father for his parents' deaths.

Paul's life would probably remain in this peculiar stasis except he encounter Madame Proust (Anne Le Ny), the eccentric downstairs neighbor who lives in a what appears to be an illegal unit between floors.  Mme. Proust serves him some "herbal tea" which puts Paul in an catatonic state but also stirs long repressed memories of his parents.

Desperate to learn what happened to his parents, Paul repeatedly returns to take tea with Mme. Proust (who reminded me quite a bit of Olympia Dukakis' Anna Madrigal from Tales of City).  As he regains memories, Paul's odd behavior raises concerns in his aunts.

The film reaches its conclusion when Mme. Proust is diagnosed with incurable cancer and Paul finally recalls the deaths of his parents.  His parents were performance artists and the beating his father laid on his mother was part of the act.  Not only that - he and his parents lived in the apartment Mme. Proust now occupies.  The pièce de résistance is when Paul recalls his parents' deaths...from being crushed by a piano falling through the ceiling...which was being played by his aunts...and is the same piano he practices on while at home.

These plot coincidences, cinematography and wardrobe colors reminded me a lot of Jacques Demy's films.  Attila Marcel was a first rate homage to Demy (and Tati) but the film was strangely anachronistic.   Dreamlike and farcical, the film left me wanting a little bit more.  Chomet's film felt derivative and hewed too close to the techniques of the Two Jacques.  Ultimately, I think it lacked the bittersweet tone that made Demy's and Tati's films so memorable.  I would have preferred a little less farce and a little more pathos in Attila Marcel.

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Camille Claudel 1915 was an extremely difficult film to watch.  The film is based on the real events of Camille Claudel's life which SFFF Executive Director Cécile Mouette Downs said were well known in France.

Camille Claudel was sculptor Auguste Rodin's assistant, muse, protégé and lover.  Claudel and Rodin continued their volatile personal and professional relationship for nearly 15 years.  Before and after the split from Rodin, Claudel was a renowned sculptor.  However, in the early 20th century, Claudel began to exhibit increasing signs of mental illness.  Soon after her father died in 1913, Claudel was "voluntarily" committed to a psychiatric hospital.

For the next 30 years until her death, Claudel lived in asylums despite doctors' recommendations that she be released into the care of her family.  Claudel's brother Paul visit her periodically over the years.  Her sister Louise visited her once while her mother did not visit at all before passing in 1929.

I knew none of this prior to watching the film.  During Downs introduction of the film, I stepped out of the auditorium to get something to drink.  When I returned, the movie was starting (why did it take 5+ minutes to heat a hot dog?).  I'm not sure if knowing all this would have changed my viewing experience.

As the title alludes, the film picks up Camille Claudel's (Juliette Binoche) life story in 1915.  Set  at Montdevergues Asylum near Avignon, Claudel is the most lucid of the patients.  While watching the film, I was amazed at the performances of the actors playing the other patients.  It turns out the film was shot at an actual mental asylum and the patients were portrayed by actual patients.  This lends a reality to the film which is harrowing.  In particular, there is one woman who can only be described as snaggletoothed whose appearance and behavior are gut wrenching.  I've never dealt with mentally unstable people (except on the streets of San Francisco) but there is something about losing one's faculties that terrifies me.  I found Camille Claudel 1915 to be harrowing.

Supplementing the cinéma vérité aspects of the film is a tremendous performance by Juliette Binoche.  Despondent and resentful about her situation, Claudel has no choice but to endure.  Unable to find privacy and embarrassed by the indignities she must suffer, Claudel is in no man's land.  Clearly not at the same condition as her fellow inmates but nonetheless restricted by most of the same rules, Claudel is truly in despair.  Binoche gets to flex her acting muscles in the role.

The film follows Claudel in the days leading up to a visit by her brother Paul (Jean-Luc Vincent).  Excited by the prospect of finding a sympathetic figure in her brother and possibly released into his care, Claudel highly anticipates the meeting.  Much of the film focuses on the days leading up to Paul's arrival.  When he does arrive, we see a man whose devotion to Catholicism borders on fanatical.  In the final, heartbreaking scene, Paul rejects his sister's plea for removal from Montdevergues.  His motivations remain vague although Camille's unconventional life seems to have offended his religious sensibilities.  That's interesting because I learned later that Rodin was not actually married during his affair with Camille while Paul had a long-term affair and child by a married woman.

Camille Claudel 1915 was an exhausting experience...much like Claudel's life in the asylum.  The film's portrayal of Claudel was ambiguous.  Although she was clearly in better shape than the others, she did suffer from bouts of paranoia and in real-life, her behavior prior to institutionalization was more erratic.  The film repeatedly whipsawed my empathy towards Claudel.

An uncomfortable film to watch should not be confused with a film lacking merit.  Camille Claudel 1915 is a very powerful film and the images will last in my memory for a long time.

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It had been my intention to only see two films on the Sunday I went to Sacramento.  I wanted to eat dinner at Petra Greek on 16th St. but did not realize it was not open on Sundays.  I turned around and got back to the Crest just in time to for the 8:15 PM start of Age of Panic.

Downs cited Age of Panic as an example of the New New Wave of French Cinema, a term I was previously unfamiliar with.  I'm still unclear on what constitutes the New New Wave but Age of Panic reminded me a little of Mumblecore.  Set on the specific date of May 6, 2012, the film integrates the French Presidential Election (held on May 6) with film's plot.  All the characters are portrayed by actors with the same name.  Laetitia Dosch is a television news reporter who has been assigned to cover the François Hollande election day rallies.  She hires a first-time babysitter (a chef by training) to look after her two young children.  She warns him not to allow the children's father Vincent (Macaigne) in the apartment.  Their divorce was acrimonious.  Actually, I'm not sure if they were ever married but their child-sharing arrangement has been contentious.

Of course, Vincent shows up at Laetitia's apartment and demands to see the kids and of course, Marc (the babysitter) allows him into the house.  This begins a long day played out in front of the election, the election results and election celebrations.  What would have happened to the plot if Hollande had lost?  I doubt anything would have changed within the film.

Unscripted, director Justine Triet give free rein to Dosch & Macaigne to spew their character's vitriol and display their character flaws.  At times it was repetitive but Vincent's character is slightly unhinged.  Dosch and especially Macaigne run with the roles.  They are too deeply resentful people who were likely deeply in the love once upon a time.

The films peters out at the end when Vincent, his law student cum attorney, Laetitia and her new boyfriend meet late at night in an awkward but highly amusing encounter.  Triet didn't seem to know how to end the scene or the film or if she did, she was giving directions to her actors.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Age of Panic.  It is the third film starring Vincent Macaigne which I've seen in less than a year.

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Office du Tourisme is a delightful short film directed by actor Benjamin Biolay (Bachelor Days Are Over).  Paired with Attila Marcel, Office du Tourisme was the more Demyesque of the two.  It is a 15 minute musical about a young woman recently arrived in Paris who finds love unexpectedly with another woman only to have their amorous evening interrupted by a homophobic taxi driver (Biolay).  Whereas Attila felt derivative, Biolay took Demy's template and applied it to a modern situation in an innovative way.  Office du Tourisme was my favorite film of the ones I saw at SFFF this year.

As It Used to Be was an English language film set in South Africa.  Set in a future where university instruction is completely web based, a professor must deal with the disruptive effects of actually having a student in the classroom.  Simplistic and predictable, I wasn't very impressed.

La Gagne tells the story of an elaborate scam where a successful businessman and homeless mendicant slowly reveal themselves to be different than what first impressions would indicate.  It wasn't bad although I predicted the ending several minutes in advance.

The Wind Rises and Japanese Film Screenings This Summer

The YBCA had Studio Ghibli series from May 1 to June 8.  By my count, that was the third Studio Ghibli series to play in the Bay Area in the last 18 months.  The PFA had a two month series last summer.  The Landmark Bridge had a Studio Ghibli series in 2012, a few months before it permanently closed.

A quick perusal of my film log reveals that I skipped all the films in all three series.  I won't say that I don't like Studio Ghibli films but I don't share the passion that many claim.  Frankly, I think many of the people who claim to be diehard Ghibli fans are poseurs.

I rather enjoyed From Up on Poppy Hill.  That film was directed by Gorō Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki's son.  In fact, from his name, I must assume he is Miyazaki's fifth born son.  When I saw the senior Miyazaki's The Wind Rises on the Castro calendar for June 11, I  made no plans to attend.  However, late on the afternoon of the 11th, I changed my mind and decided to go.

The Wind Rises; animation; directed by Hayao Miyazaki; Japanese with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website

The Wind Rises holds two distinctions.  It was announced that the film would be the final one directed by the 73 year old Miyazaki.  Second, The Wind Rises was the highest grossing film in Japan in 2013.  The Castro screened two versions of the film.  At 7 PM, they screened the subtitled version.  At 9:30, they screened the dubbed version (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role).  The screening schedule accomodated my preference which was to see the film with subtitles

The film focuses on the life of Jiro Horikoshi.  By the way, his name would indicate he is the second son but in the film, he is the only son.  I don't know why I'm focusing on the Japanese suffixes for male birth order.  From a young age, he dreams of being a airplane pilot.  His poor eyesight puts that dream out of reach so he refocuses his ambitions towards being an aeronautical engineer although I'm not sure if that term existed during the setting of the film which begins in the 1900s or 1910s.

While riding the train to university in 1923, Jiro is caught in the Great Kantō earthquake.  He helps rescue a wealthy young girl named Naoko and her injured maid.  Single minded in his studies and perhaps because Naoko is seemingly underage, Jiro and Naoko part ways without any way to reconnect.

Jiro graduates and gets a job with Mitsubishi designing military fighters and bombers.  Throughout the film, pioneering Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Caproni serves as Jiro's sounding board through a series of dream sequences.  They repeatedly debate the ethics of designing airplanes for warfare.  Although Jiro has his concerns, he ultimately and repeatedly returns to the point of view that the beauty of his aircraft designs trumps their usage.  Frankly, I thought the film played down that inner conflict within Jiro to its own detriment.

While on summer vacation, Jiro encounters Naoko again although it is she who recognizes him.  A kind sort but lacking passion for anything but his work, I'm not sure what Naoko sees in Jiro.  Regardless, their romance progresses quickly.  The are to be wed except for Naoko's tuberculosis.  Not wanting to burden her would-be husband with her illness, Naoko insists that she take treatment at a sanatorium before she agrees to marriage.

In the interim, Jiro's skills as an aircraft designer are coming to the forefront.  He has innovative designs and production techniques for his fighter plane which will become the vaunted Mitsubishi A6M Zero.  Amidst the final push during the design and prototype phase of the aircraft, Naoko arrives from the sanatorium.  Her illness is incurable so she and Jiro decided to be wed immediately so that they can spend the rest of her time together.

As Jiro's professional life flourishes, Naoko's health wanes.  Naoko leaves Jiro on the day of the final testing of his aircraft as her condition has reached its end state.  In fact, the film portrays her passing during the moments of the successful test flight of Jiro's aircraft.

I am lukewarm about The Wind Rises.  The use the dream sequences with Caproni were visually impressive but a little old-fashioned.  The film glossed over Jiro's significant contributions to Japan's role in WWII.  This is done to focus on the tragic love affair between Jiro & Naoko.  Once again, I am viewing a film where I can't help thinking of the story that could have been told instead of the story that was told.  I think a little more emphasis on Jiro's apprehensions about designing warplanes would have made for a more complex portrayal of the man.  More generally, The Wind Rises exhibits the primary reason I am not a bigger fan of Japanese anime.  It tries to obviously to pull at your heartstrings and manipulate your emotions.

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I notice that the Roxie is having a monthly series this summer called Nippon Nights - Neon Tokyo Anime World.  They are playing a title I recognize - Akira on August 21.  Not part of the Nippon Nights series is an August 24 screening of Astro Boy.

The Japan Film Festival of San Francisco (July 19-27) is screening several anime films at the Viz.  The film festival is being held in conjunction with the J-Pop Summit.  The film which caught my attention from the lineup is Sion Sono's Why Don't You Play in Hell? on July 20.

Finally, the Sacramento Japanese Film Festival (July 18-20) has announced their lineup.  It has one anime film, Colorful, on its schedule.  All films at the festival screen at the Crest Theater.

The series I'm most looking forward to this summer is the PFA's 17 film retrospective on Kenji Mizoguchi.  The series kicks off on Thursday, June 19 with Ugetsu and runs until August 29.  There are at least a half dozen films in the series which I've already marked on my calendar.  A partial sample of the films I'm looking forward to include:  Miss Oyu, Crucified Lovers, A Woman of Rumor and Street of Shame.  I was most impressed with Street of Shame from my viewing of it during the summer of 2010.  Street of Shame was Mizoguchi's final film.

Life Is Short: Nikkatsu Studios at 100

The PFA had a series in September & October titled Life Is Short: Nikkatsu Studios at 100.  The series commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Nikkatsu Studios, the oldest film studio in Japan.

Of the 14 films in the series, I watched 12.  The two I missed were Made to Order Cloth and Harp of Burma.  I was at the Hong Kong Cinema series the day Made to Order Cloth screened and I had seen Harp of Burma (under the the title The Burmese Harp) at the Viz in 2010.

Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District starring Michiyo Aratama & Tatsuya Mihashi; directed by Yuzo Kawashina; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
A Colt Is My Passport starring Jo Shishido; directed by Takashi Nomura; Japanese with subtitles; (1967)
Capricious Young Man starring Chiezo Kataoka; directed by Mansaku Itami; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
The Warped Ones starring Tamio Kawaji; directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara; Japanese with subtitles; (1960)
Season of the Sun Yoko Minamida & Hiroyuki Nagato; directed by Takumi Furukawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
Hometown starring Yoshie Fujiwara; directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1930)
Singing Lovebirds starring Chiezo Kataoka & Takashi Shimura; directed by Masahiro Makino; Japanese with subtitles; (1939)
Rusty Knife starring Yujiro Ishihara & Akira Kobayashi; directed by Toshio Masuda; Japanese with subtitles; (1958)
Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate starring Frankie Sakai; directed by Yuzo Kawashima; Japanese with subtitles; (1957)
Gate of Flesh starring Satoko Kasai & Jo Shishido; directed by Seijun Suzuki; Japanese with subtitles; (1964)
The Young Rebel starring Ken Yamanouchi; directed by Seijun Suzuki; Japanese with subtitles; (1963)
Elegy to Violence starring Hideki Takahashi; directed by Seijun Suzuki; Japanese with subtitles; (1966)

This was a much anticipated series for me which largely paid off with a few exceptions.

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My favorite films from the series were also the most violent ones - A Colt is My Passport, The Warped Ones, Season of the Sun, Gate of Flesh, and Elegy to Violence.

In A Colt is My Passport, Jo Shisido (the stalwart of the series), plays a hitman on the run from the mob.  He and his younger associate (Jerry Fujio) have been betrayed by the gang who hired them to kill a rival gangster so both gangs are after the two.  They take refuge in a dockside motel where the chambemaid (Chitose Kobayashi) shows interest in Shisido.  He's loyal to his partner (who is wounded).  Actually his loyalty goes beyond commendable to being suspicious.  You begin to wonder about the exact nature of the relationship between these two men.  A neat soundtrack and Sergio Leoneesque shootout give the film style in spades.

The Warped Ones reminded me a some of of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless from the same year but it's like Breathless on crystal meth.  Tamio Kawachi plays Akira like he is mentally deranged.  Hopped up on criminal thrills and bebop jazz, Akira starts a crime wave with his prostitute girlfriend and an ex-con he met in the joint.  Eventually they assault the man that turned them into the police and rape his girlfriend Yuki (Yuko Chishiro).  When Yuki turns up pregnant and her boyfriend grows distant, she appeals to Akira's honor which is a lost cause.  She confides in Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto), Akira's now prostitute ex-girlfriend who agrees to seduce Yuki's boyfriend so they will more sexually equivalent.  I guess "blame the victim" was prevalent in Japanese attitudes towards victims of rape...although Akira did give up a little too easy for my cinematic tastes.  The film ends with the two couples at an abortion clinic which Akira finds hilarious.  Full of jump cuts and frenetic music, The Warped Ones must have been  unlike anything seen before in Japanese cinema.  If you liked Breathless (which I did), you owe it to yourself to seek out The Warped Ones.

Season of the Sun gave rise to the "Sun Tribe" or "Taiyo-zoku" subculture of Japanese youth who based much of "bored, angry and jaded" views on the novel Season of the Sun by Ishihara Shintaro on which this film is based.  Ironically, Ishihara was governor of Tokyo Prefecture (kind of like the City & County of San Francisco) until Halloween 2012 when he resigned to form a far right political party for the upcoming national elections.  Films expressing the Sun Tribe viewpoints on life & society appropriated its name for their genre.  Some film critics liken the Sun Tribe to the French New Wave and even refer to it as Japanese New Wave.

Season of the Sun is set among some wealthy young people who consist of people old enough to remember Japan's war years but who came of age in an American Occupied society.  Their national pride in tatters and influenced by Western customs, this generation struggled to find themselves.  In the film, they spend their time sailing and at the beach.  One young but nihilistic woman falls in with a poor boxer which leads to tragedy for both of them.  With its depiction of sex, rape, pregnancy, abortion amd violence, Season of the Sun was quite shocking in its time and even packed a punch in 2012.  Not as outrageous as A Colt is My Passport and The Warped Ones.

Gate of Flesh was the most outrageous of all.  Set in a post-war slum, a gang of prostitutes live...I don't know what it was.  A condemned building?  An abandoned port facility?  These are some tough whore who vow not to have sex with a man unless he pays for it.  The penalty if they discover one of their own has given it away is a whipping and possible a shaved head.  Into this estrogen rich atmosphere comes a wounded Jo Shishido to convalesce.  He's a violent thug with a bum leg who frequent state of undress leads the ladies to rethink the cardinal rule.  Maya (Yumiko Nogawa) succumbs to his Kowalskiesque magnetism and pays the price.  It's true love though; they agree to go on the lam together...until Shishido is double crossed and shot leaving Maya alone as the film ends.  Exploitive and bordering on pornographic at times, Gate of Flesh is something to behold.  In the hands of a lesser director, it would surely have devolved into something ridiculous.  However, Gate of Flesh was directed by Seijin Suzuki and it maintains its energy throughout.  Anything but subtle, the film has an in-your-face attitude towards sex and violence which has long been a hallmark of the best that Japanese cinemas has to offer.

Elegy to Violence was also a hoot.  Exploring militaristic and adolescent tendencies towards violence, Elegy focuses on Nambu, the most violent of all teenagers at his school.  The violence is only a outlet for unfulfilled sexual desire for Michiko, a Catholic girl!  I particularly like the way he would look at the crucifix before having carnal thoughts or committing acts of violence.  Eventually seeing the futility of violence, Nambu gets busy romancing Michiko but his violent past won't let him completely free.  Unexpectedly humorous, Elegy to Violence is another sterling effort by Suzuki.

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Not quite as memorable but worthwhile were Rusty Knife and The Young Rebel (aka The Bastard) explore violence through lens of gangster codes and pre-war militarism.  Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District is a tragic romance about a couple who are undone by their own desires and proximity to the titular red light district.  Unlike the other seven films I have mentioned so far, Suzaki Paradise relied less on sex & violence and more on poverty and human flaws to advance its tale tragedy.

Singing Lovebirds was interesting in that it was pre-war but used Western style music to tell a story set in the 1800s or early 1900s.  Chiezo Kataoka shines as the daughter of the umbrella maker (Takashi Shimura) who longs for the samurai.  When was the last time you saw a Samurai musical?

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I couldn't get into Capricious Young Man and Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate.  Hometown is Kenji Mizoguchi's first sound film and it shows.  With editing that butchered the thin plot, it was like watching an experimental film.  Actually, I recall similar efforts in US films of the era as filmmakers tried to find techniques that would work for talkies.  Hometown seems to bet its money on tenor Yushie Fujiwara, a half Scottish, half Japanese opera singer.  Hopelessly incomprehensible, I considered walking out but kept hoping it would get better.

The Return of Kenji Mizoguchi

In June, Viz Cinema screened four films each by acclaimed Japanese directors Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. In October, Viz Cinema screened four new films by both Ozu and Mizoguchi.

Of the three directors, I was least familiar with Mizoguchi's works. I was down on two of the films but thoroughly enjoyed Street of Shame (1956) which happened to be Mizoguchi's final film. I am happy to say that I was more impressed with the four films in this second Mizoguchi series much more.

The title of the series was "Mizoguchi and His Muse: Kinuyo Tanaka" so all the films featured actress Kinuyo Tanaka in the lead roles or co-lead roles.

Women of the Night; Japanese with subtitles; (1948)
Life of Oharu with Toshirô Mifune; Japanese with subtitles; (1952)
Sansho the Bailiff; Japanese with subtitles; (1954)
Miss Oyu; Japanese with subtitles; (1951)

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Life of Oharu was the most epic and heart-wrenching of the films. Tanaka plays a woman who ages 30 years during the film. 43 years old when the film was released, Tanaka was quite believable as a younger woman. Her character, Oharu, is a lady-in-waiting at the royal court in Kyoto during the 1600s. She tries to resist the advances of a lower-ranking page (Toshirô Mifune) but his persistence and her own attraction to him prove too much for her. They give in to their desires and this starts Oharu down the path of misery. Her dalliance is discovered. She and her family are banished from Kyoto; losing their spot in the royal court. For his part, Mifune's character is beheaded.

Stuck in the hinterlands with a resentful father, Oharu's life is uncertain until a representative of Lord Matsudaira, a daimyō in Edo (Tokyo) comes to town looking for a concubine. He has very specific criteria and is worried he won't find his woman until he encounters Oharu. The perfect match, it is arranged for Oharu to take up residence in Edo and produce a male heir for the daimyō as Lady Matsudaira is not up to the task. Resentful from the start, Lady Matsudaira and the court nobles conspire to send Oharu back home once she has fulfilled her task. Oharu is returned home with little money in the way of severance. She discovers her father has run up debt in anticipation of her stipend as a concubine. What's a family to do? In feudal Japan, the sell the daughter off to be a courtesan. The English subtitles kept using the word courtesan but to me she was more like a geisha since she recited poetry or played music and sang.

Oharu is ultimately a failure there as well. Rather than recount her whole wretched life, I'll summarize. Oharu is then sent to work as a maid of sorts for a tailor's family. When the head of the household discovers Oharu was a former geisha, it unlocks long held desires on his part to have carnal knowledge of a geisha. The only thing that has kept him from his dream is that he doesn't want to pay for it. Now with Oharu under his roof, his pecuniary concerns are eliminated by brute force.

After being cast from the house by the jealous wife, Oharu finally lands a nice man and gets married but shortly finds herself a widow when he is killed by robbers. At this point, Oharu tries to become a nun but the pesky and randy tailor tracks her down and forces himself on her again at a Buddhist temple. Discovered in flagrante delicto, Oharu is cast out of the nunnery. At this point, she hits rock bottom and turns to prostitution, a straight-up streetwalker.

After several years of this, Oharu is reunited with her mother (her father having passed in the ensuing years). She is told that the new daimyō (Oharu's son) wants her back at his court in Edo. Excited by the prospect of meeting her son, Oharu is once again bitterly disappointed when she is instead lectured on the shame she is bringing to her son by being a common whore. Especially ironic since the men lecturing her are the same ones who cast her out of the court years earlier without compensation. Sentenced to house arrest for the rest of her lifetime, Oharu escapes and the film ends with her homeless and begging (too old to even be a whore).

The synopsis I just wrote was for a 2.5 hour film. The relentlessly bleak plot consists of Oharu enduring countless misfortunes although most of them were precipitated by rigid gender roles and blatant sexism in Edo Period Japan. That Oharu directed films with similar plots set in post-WWII Japan only add to the poignancy and sadness of the plight of Japanese women.

Anchoring the film is Kinuyo Tanaka who plays Oharu from a naive and headstrong teenager to a weary old woman. The most brutal scene was towards the end. A man (a monk I believe) brings Oharu back to his inn. Rather than paying for her sexual services, he shines light on Oharu's face and uses her as an example to the young men in his company. If you desire the flesh, you'll end up like this withered old whore. Oharu meekly accepts the man's insults and money but showing the last vestiges of self-respect and fire-in-the-belly, Oharu rises up to kick and berate the man.

I didn't the enjoy the film as much as I was emotionally drained by it. Only a man with a heart of stone could stay dry-eyed throughout the film. Life of Oharu was the first film in a five year run at the Venice Film Festival. Each year from 1952 to 1956, a Mizoguchi film was accepted and nominated for that festival's highest honor, the Golden Lion Award. At the time, Mizoguchi rivaled Kurosawa as the most famous and admired Japanese director in international film circles. Melodramatic by modern standards, the film allows Mizoguchi to engage in long takes and deliberate pacing to a degree which is no longer allowed in most commercial films.

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Women of the Night reminded me of Street of Shame which was my favorite Mizoguchi film from the June screenings at Viz.

In post-WWII Japan, two sisters must ultimately resort to prostitution to feed themselves. The two sisters (Tanaka and Sanae Takasugi) take slightly different paths. Tanaka's character is more resistant but once they hit rock bottom, she seems more accepting of her circumstances. The film had a moralistic tone which is offputting 60 years later but it had an emotional scene at the end where Tanaka's character is brutally beaten by a gang of prostitutes for being an outsider.

Women of the Night, Street of Shame and Life of Oharu are variations on the same theme which is the second class role women had in Japanese society and that without the protection of a husband, women have only one asset to sell. As I mentioned in my previous post, Mizoguchi's sister was sold to a geisha house (like Memoirs of a Geisha) and the experience profoundly affected Mizoguchi and his films.

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Sansho the Bailiff is a well-known legend in a Japan. It's ultimately about the price of staying true to one's convictions but as is de rigueur in Mizoguchi films, the mother (Kinuyo Tanaka) resorts to prostitution.

Set in feudal Japan, a province governor refuses to raise taxes on the poor despite direct orders from his lord. For this offense, he is banished and sends his wife and small children to live with his brother. The three of them are deceived by strangers and sold into slavery and prostitution. The brother and sister are sold to work as slaves for the eponymous Sansho while the mother is sold to a geisha house (which in Mizoguchi films always seem to be a temporary stop on the road to street walking).

As the children grow into adulthood, they keep alive the hope to be reunited as a family. The kids discover their mother is still alive and plan their escape. The sister has to sacrifice her life to allow her brother to escape. However, once he finds his mother, he discovers her blind, crippled and homeless. That's how the film ends which I find more powerful than some ridiculous, tacked-on happy ending which would have happened in a Hollywood film of the time and perhaps still today.

As I watched these films, I wondered what kinds of film Mizoguchi would have done if he wasn't Japanese. Japanese customs and experiences were such a part of his stories that it's impossible for me to imagine any other kind of film from the man. Whereas Ozu's films on family are universal and Kurosawa's epic influenced and were influenced by Western films, Mizoguchi's films are resolutely Japanese not to mention relentlessly downbeat.

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My least favorite film of the quartet was Miss Oyu. Set in 1951, Miss Oyu is a love triangle featuring two sisters - Tanaka as the older sister who is a widow and Nobuko Otowa as the younger, titular sister. Actor Yuji Hori is cast as the young man whose marriage to Miss Oyu is arranged by others. The odd part of this film is that Oyu is well aware of the attraction between her sister and her fiancé but rather than taking steps to put herself in the predominant position or conceding to her sister, she goes through with the marriage and asks her husband to make her sister be happy. Equally ridiculous is that Tanaka's character seems oblivious to the peculiarity of her relationship to her brother-in-law, the scandal it causes or ever her own not-so-latent attraction to him.

All three characters suffer for their inability to admit the truth as well as the social pressure put on them to behave a certain way. In that sense, the film was engaging but the plot was so contrived by 2010 American standards that I lost interest.

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Having seen 8 Mizoguchi films now, I can say that he's your man if you are looking for a good cry. In particular, if the plight of women in male dominated societies is something that interests you, you would do well to see some of his films.

Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi (Part 3 ot 3)

As I originally posted, I saw four films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi at the Viz/New People series on Japanese directors in June.

Sisters of Gion directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
Ugetsu directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1953)
Utamaro and His Five Women directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1946)
Street of Shame directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)

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Prior to this series, I was not very familiar with Mizoguchi. His Sansho the Bailiff is high on my list of "to see" films. Ugetsu or Ugetsu Monogatari is probably his most renowned film.

Mizoguchi's family life is could be a film. Actually, it is very near the plot of Memoirs of a Geisha. While a boy, Mizoguchi's father suffered a financial setback. As a result, his father gave up his eldest daughter for adoption. Later, the girl was sold to a geisha house. After his mother passed away, Kenji went to live with his geisha sister in Tokyo. These events had a profound effect on Mizoguchi as can be evidenced in his films. Known as a proto-feminist, Mizoguchi's film told stories about women. Typically, the women in his films were oppressed or exploited (as was common in Japanese society). Mizoguchi gave these women a certain degree of dignity or indignation at their treatment. Rather than Grrl Power, it's more like Look at the Injustices Women have to Endure.

In the 1920's Mizoguchi was slashed with a razor by a prostitute he was living with during a domestic disturbance. Add that to filter by which his films are to be viewed.

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Of the Mizoguchi films screened, Ugetsu or sometimes Ugetsu Monogatari which translates to a fabulous English title of "Tales of Moonlight and Rain." Mizoguchi won the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction for this film at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.

Ugetsu follows two peasant couples in the 16th century. One husband (Genjurō) is a potter and yearns to be wealthy. The other husband (Tōbei) is...well I'm not sure what is job is. He's seems to be a ne'er-do-well but his dream is crystal clear. He wants to be a samurai; i.e. he wants power & glory. After some modest success selling the pottery (Tōbei gets a cut for helping haul the ceramics to a village), Genjurō decides to fire a massive batch of ceramics and make his fortune.

The wives are more circumspect with respect to their husbands' activities. Miyagi, Genjurō wife, notes that his husband has become obsessed with making pots and by extension money. Genjurō is short-tempered with their son. Ohama, Tōbei wife, is weary and wary of her husband's dream of becoming a samurai and recognizes that any money he makes might well go towards this foolish endeavor. Tōbei has been humiliated by some samurai and told he can never be a samurai's assistant until he gets some armor & a spear.

Genjurō's village is attacked by soldiers and everyone flees to the woods. Genjurō ventures back to save his pottery. Braving marauding soldiers and pirate, the trio get the pottery to the town where they will sell it. Before they cross the lake into town, Genjurō drops Miyagi and their son on shore for safety. Once in town, the trio gets separated. After selling most of the pottery, Tōbei runs off to buy samurai gear. Ohama chases after him but loses him in crowd. Genjurō continues selling the ceramics but is approached by a wealthy lady and her servant. They order several pieces and ask him to deliver it to their estate.

I'll cut to the chase since my words can't do the plot or cinematography justice. The noblewoman who orders the pottery is a spirit or ghost. She seduces Genjurō but he is saved by some Sanskrit writing painted onto his body by a priest as protection. Later, he is robbed of all the money he made selling pottery.

Ohama is raped and eventually ends up working in a brothel.

Tōbei purchases some armor and lies by claiming to have killed a general in battle. Despite being dubious of his claim, the rival general rewards Tōbei with a battlefield commission, in essence making him a samurai. Tōbei rides into town like the cock of the walk on his horse and with his honor guard. He sees his wife at a brothel arguing with a customer over money. He sells his armor and horse to buy his wife's freedom.

Miyagi, but not her son, is killed by soldier for her food.

Anyway, this morality tale was a little heavy-handed for my tastes. The moral of the story is simple - women have to endure their husband's foolish dreams and behavior. One is killed for it and the other is raped and forced into prostitution. Compared to the other films in the series, this one had some redemption in the end. The men seemed to truly learn their lessons although the cost was high.

Notwithstanding the Silver Lion Award, I didn't enjoy Ugetsu. The period setting, slow pacing and heavy-handed misandry left me cool to this film.

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18th century woodblock artist Kitagawa Utamaro is the nominal subject of Utamaro and His Five Women. However, film scholars and screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda have claimed the film is autobiographical with Utamaro standing in for Mizoguchi.

Unlike Ugetsu, Utamaro was more circuitous in divulging its morality tale, if for no other reason than having to introduce and contrast the five women of the title. For the record, the five women are #1) the daughter of the wealthy nobleman/artist. Her fiancée abandons her to study under Utamaro. #2) the beautiful courtesan who is about to get a tattoo. Utamaro uses her back as a canvas for his painting. #3) His geisha/regular model who saps his inspiration because she is distraught and upset because her lover has eloped with another geisha. In response, she takes up with #1's ex-fiancée. #4) his new model, a peasant girl whom he discovers while spying on a lord's ritual of having 100 women bathe or swim in the ocean as he watches. #5) I can't remember what she did. She might have owned a teahouse/restaurant but the main I remember is that's she's marrying Utamaro's servant and acts as a girl Friday for Utamaro.

As you can tell by my lackadaisical synopsis, the film meanders along and I had a hard time following all the characters. Utamaro is arrested and as punishment, he is not allowed to paint for 30 or 60 days. The women are once again victimized except this time it is not only by men but by each other as the secondary effect of being mistreated by men. Even Utamaro exploits the women through his actions or emotional aloofness.

Once again, I didn't connect with a Mizoguchi film. The number of characters and foreignness of time and place were too much for me to overcome.

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Lest one think me a complete philistine, I enjoyed the two Mizoguchi films set in the 20th century.

Sisters of Gion was filmed and set in the mid-1930s. The two sisters, Umekichi and Omocha, are geishas in the Gion District of Kyoko. Umekichi is the more kind-hearted sister. She allows a bankrupt customer to stay at their house. Omocha is more self-interested and looks upon men in general and her customers in particular as a obstacle to their money.

After various machinations, Umekichi is abandoned by her bankrupt patron when he gets a job out of the city. Umekichi who is clearly in love with the man even though he is married, is heartbroken. Omocha, after taking advantage one man too many, is injured when she is thrown from a moving car. The film ends with Umekichi tending to her injured sister and Omocha cursing the occupation of geisha and by extension, her and her sister's lives.

Sisters of Gion was relentlessly downbeat. It didn't matter if the geisha was kind to men or if they manipulated men, they ended up abandoned with only each other to turn to. This must have been a provocative film in the 1930s when the Gion District was teeming with geishas. I felt so sympathetic towards Umekichi which is a measure of my enjoyment of the film.

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My favorite Mizoguchi film of the series was Street of Shame, his last film. Set in the 1950s Tokyo when prostitution was still legal in Japan, the film focuses on a brothel and its employees. Throughout the film, the news is reporting on attempts by the Diet to ban prostitution although, like human nature, the bill fails to pass.

Each of the prostitutes are there for various reasons and they cope in various ways. The juiciest role is that of Micki (Machiko Kyô from Kurosawa's Rashômon and The Teahouse of the August Moon with Marlon Brando & Glenn Ford). She's completely unsentimental and seems shocked when any of her co-workers exhibit anything resembling hope or decency. She is the only one who wears Western clothing and she wears them well ("I'm well-proportioned"). When her father comes to the house to take her home, she gives a glimpse into her past life. Her father frequented prostitutes and it seems she does it just to spite him.

Other denizens of the brothel include Hanae, a mother with a small child and suicidal husband; Yorie who is engaged to one of her clients; Yumeko whose son lives in the country with her parents; and Yasumi, the most popular whore who manipulates men into giving her money so that she can leave the profession and marry them. Yasumi bore a number of similarities to Omocha in Sisters of Gion.

Eventually, they all suffer the indignity of their profession although some more than others. Yumeko's son comes to Tokyo because he is harassed in his small village because everyone knows what she does. Yumeko has convinced herself that everything she is doing is for her son but the long absences and shame of the profession do not engender much gratitude from her son. He rejects her and she attempts suicide.

Yorie's husband married her so he could have a free, live-in maid and she quickly returns to the brothel where she can make her own money.

Yasumi is attacked by one of the men she has swindled but she survives and using the money she has made via her job, her marks and interest on loans to the other women, she buys a futon and bedding shop.

Beyond the flamboyance of Kyô's Micki, I enjoyed nad empathized the most with the quiet, bespectacled, dignity and perseverance of Michiko Kogure (Drunken Angel) as Hanae.

So after Mizoguchi condemns the system...and the human nature that led to the system...and to some extent, the women who participate in the system, he adds a haunting and heartbreaking coda. Throughout the film, there is a servant girl at the brothel. Her name is Shizuko (Yasuko Kawakami). She cleans, cooks and runs errands but she is not a prostitute. Of all people, Micki buys dinner for everyone and there is an extra serving. Micki offers it to Shizuko and after initial hesitation, she eats it with gusto, exclaiming it is the best thing she ever ate. With a little more prompting, she tells her story. If I recall correctly, her father died in the war and she was sold to the brothel. The specifics don't matter because as Micki says (paraphrasing), "What's the big deal, we all have the same story?"

When Shizuko is old enough (I'm not sure how old that is), she has her coming-out or debut party. It was nothing like Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby. She has white make-up applied to her face and she's seated out in front of the brothel. Ever empathetic in her own way, Micki sees she doesn't have a barker so she yells for men to give the new girl a try. Shizuko, her spirit already a long way from resilient, follows Micki's lead and begin meekly calling out for customers. The viewer is left with the distinct impression that the cycle continues but also how this sweet, timid girl is going to survive.

It's sad that Street of Shame was Mizoguchi's last film because he incorporated bittersweet humor with his feminist storytelling to great effect. He even let one of his fallen angels escape her circumstances although through unethical means. It's clear that when compared to his jidaigeki films and even Sisters of Gion that is making films in a more modern style that is more accessible (at least more accessible to me).

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So I give Street of Shame an unequivocal positive recommendation. Sisters of Gion - an equivocal positive recommendation. Utamaro and His Five Women and Ugetsu weren't my cup of tea.

Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi (Part 1 ot 3)

Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi - sounds like a Tokyo law firm. Akira Kurosawa & Yasujirō Ozu are inarguably, the two greatest directors in Japanese cinema. Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi is not as well known but highly esteemed for Ugetsu, The Crucified Lovers and other jidaigeki films. Not being familiar with Japanese history from the Edo or Meiji periods, I have never been a big fan of period films set in the samurai and shōgun periods.

The reason I mention this prestigious trio of Japanese directors is because New People/Viz Cinema had 12 film/3 week series in June featuring the works of Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi. As an added bonus, all the films were projected from 35 mm prints.

I watched 10 of the 12 films in the series.

Stray Dog starring Toshirō Mifune; directed by Akira Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1949)
High and Low starring Toshirō Mifune; directed by Akira Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1963)
The Only Son directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
Record of a Tenement Gentleman directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1947)
Early Spring directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
Tokyo Story directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1953)
Sisters of Gion directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
Ugetsu directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1953)
Utamaro and His Five Women directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1946)
Street of Shame directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)

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I've seen Stray Dog and High and Low before. Indeed Stray Dog may be my favorite Kurosawa films. High and Low is mystery based on King's Ransom, an 87th Precinct novel Ed McBain. High and Low is one of the best police procedurals I've seen.

The two films I missed from the series were Kurosawa's Drunken Angel and The Bad Sleep Well. My records indicate I saw Drunken Angel in January/February 2007. I saw Stray Dog, The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low in January 2008. I didn't write anything up for Stray Dog or High and Low back then so I'll make up for it now.

Stray Dog is, by appearance, a policier with noirish overtones set in the immediate post-WWII years. Murakami (Toshirō Mifune), a young Tokyo cop, has his pistol pickpocketed while on a crowded trolley. Initially concerned about his career, he scours Tokyo to find the person who has stolen his gun. With the help of fellow detectives (especially Sato played by Takashi Shimura), they close in on the stolen gun but not before it is used in a few murders. Murakami is extremely self-reproachful as he feels his carelessness has caused the deaths of the victims. He becomes desperate to find the missing handgun.

An entertaining film with that plot could be set anywhere but Kurosawa adds a few elements that only he could. First it was filmed and set in 1947 Tokyo so we see a bombed out city with a defeated population, desperately poor and despondent. Layered in with the crime drama is a 1947 Tokyo travelogue and commentary on the social upheaval resulting in aftermath of the war. In addition, the plot takes place over a brutal heat wave which isn't that original but it allows Kurosawa to show a panting dog and made my skin feel clammy.

Second, Kurosawa had Mifune and Shimura to play the younger cop & his de facto mentor, respectively. More precisely, student and master. Their chemistry is subtle but adds immensely to the film. Kurosawa had previously paired these two actor in Drunken Angel and The Quiet Duel and would do so again in Scandal and most famously, The Seven Samurai. They appeared together in several other Kurosawa films.

Of the 15 or so Kurosawa films I've seen which Mifune and Shimura appeared together, it is Stray Dog which is most satisfying to me. Their relationship is more honest and realistic without the flamboyant braggadocio Mifune exhibited in The Seven Samurai or the pathetic alcoholic Shimura portrayed in Scandal. Kurosawa allows his leads to be more humble and less epic. This is probably because he gives the Full Kurosawa treatment to the villain, a mentally unhinged mad/stray dog and his confused girlfriend (Keiko Awaji). Off screen for most of the film, Isao Kimura as the killer is involved in the memorable and excruciating climax. Kimura would later achieve cinematic immortality as the youngest samurai in The Seven Samurai.

Finally, Kurosawa delves into psychological issues which compare and contrast Murakami, the cop with Yasu, the killer. Both characters stand in as a proxy for Japan itself but Kurosawa keeps the film literal enough so the audience can appreciate the characters for themselves. The increasingly desperate Murakami chasing the unseen but increasingly desperate Yasu as if he is chasing his own tail or doppelgänger.

Clearly, Kurosawa aimed for something greater than a potboiler detective story. Like a magician showing the audience just enough to sell the trick, Kurosawa delivers a noir, a psychological thriller, a commentary on social decay, and a veiled examination of Japan after WWII.

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A perfect companion piece to Stray Dog is High and Low (1963). Focusing more on the whodunit aspects of the plot, High and Low provides ample social commentary on Japan nearly 20 years after WWII.

In High and Low, Mifune plays Gondo, a shoe company executive who is ready to launch a hostile takeover but his plans get interrupted by his son's kidnapping. Quickly it is discovered that the wrong boy was abducted; they kidnapped Gondo's chauffeur's son.

Pressured by his wife, his son, his chauffeur and even the police to some extent, Gondo pays the ransom demand even though both the kidnapper & Gondo know the wrong boy has been kidnapped. The rest of the film deals with the intricate procedures associated with paying the ransom and then the subsequent police investigation to catch the kidnappers. A secondary plot line involves Gondo's financial ruin as he was leveraged to the hilt for the takeover and had to use that money to pay the ransom. At the same time his financial ruin is playing out, he becomes a hero in the media for his selflessness as well as regains his self-respect.

The film is based on an Ed McBain novel but it translates well to 1960s Japan. Like Stray Dog, Kurosawa uses the film to showcase the Bullet Train and parts of Yokohama (south of Tokyo) and provide social commentary. Heroin addicts and the poverty/income gap are highlighted in the film. Actually, Gondo's house on the hill is très chic - a large circular, Western-style living room with panoramic views of the entire city.
At the other end of spectrum is the slum at the bottom of the hill where the kidnapper lives and constantly sees Gondo's mansion. A rather distasteful sequence is set in an alley where heroin addicts gather to score some smack (usually by prostitution). There was another interesting scene where police are tailing the kidnapper when he ducks into a night club. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the cops blend in by dressing as gay men. I guess it was a gay cruising spot although there were numerous women in the scene.

When compared to Stray Dog, it's clear how far Japan advanced between 1947 and 1963. Their cities are rebuilt, people are working legitimate jobs, some Japanese have obtained extreme wealth and the protagonist and antagonist are distinctly characterized.

In Stray Dog, Mifune and the killer are differentiated by the slightest twists of fate. In High and Low, Mifune and the kidnapper couldn't be more different. After establishing his bona fides as an aggressive industrialist, Gondo silently endures the hardships, deprivations and humiliations with Job-like forbearance whereas the kidnapper's motivations are never fully explained and ultimately, he is shown to be a coward. I suppose Japanese self-identity (or at least Kurosawa's take on Japanese self-identity) had progressed in the 16 years between films such that good and evil could be consumed separately and economic conditions had improved enough that the Japanese could afford a higher grade of collective self-esteem and the luxury of ignoring self-examination.

In that sense, High and Low doesn't resonate with me like Stray Dog but High and Low is still a film worth seeing for the crime story it tells as well as a being a snapshot of Japan in the early 1960s.

This film may also be the first prominent pairing of Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshirô Mifune. Nakadai plays the chief police inspector investigating the kidnapping. Kurosawa's collaboration with Mifune would end in 1966 while Nakadai would continue making films with Kurosawa through 1985's Ran. Takashi Shimura has a small (non-speaking?) role as the police chief. Kenjiro Ishiyama as the bald headed detective they called Bosun and Yutaka Sada as Aoki the chauffeur provided solid support. Tsutomu Yamazaki as the kidnapper was sufficiently malevolent. Yamazaki may be familiar to modern audiences for his role in the Oscar winning film Departures where he played the older and mentoring mortician.