Kenji Mizoguchi

An Osaka Story (1957)

A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo. ...

Sisters of Gion (1956)

Street of Shame (1956)

Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law. ...

Taira Clan Saga (1955)

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei. ...

Princess Yang Kwei-fei (1955)

In 8th-century China, the Emperor grieves the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their court influence. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen, whom they ...

Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954)

When the wife of a 17th-century Kyoto scrollmaker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves truly falling for one another. ...

The Woman in the Rumor (1954)

After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much. ...

Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho. ...

A Geisha (1953)

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people. ...

Ugetsu (1953)

In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady ...

The Life of Oharu (1952)

During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall. ...

The Lady of Musashino (1951)

In post-war Japan, Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage, confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, w ...

Miss Oyu (1951)

Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu ...

Portrait of Madame Yuki (1950)

A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness. ...

Flame of My Love (1949)

In 1880s Japan, women's struggle for equality rages on. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government. ...

Women of the Night (1948)

In early post-war Osaka, three women—war widow Fusako, her Korean expat sister Natsuko, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law—descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons. ...

The Love of the Actress Sumako (1947)

Stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent. ...

Utamaro and His Five Women (1946)

Utamaro, a great artist, lives to create portraits of beautiful women, and the Tokyo brothels provide his models. A world of passion swirls around him, as the women vie for lovers, and, occasionally, his art gets him into trouble. ...

Victory of Women (1946)

Representing a destitute mother in an infanticide trial, a female lawyer attempts to convince a conservative prosecutor of the benefits of Japan's democratized post-war legal system. ...

Victory Song (1945)

An anthology of thirteen patriotic stories about Japanese citizens contributing to the war effort. ...

The Sword (1945)

In 19th-century Japan, a young swordsmith is determined to make the best sword possible after an inferior one he made indirectly led to the death of his guardian. ...

Miyamoto Musashi (1944)

Shinobu and her brother Genichiro plead with famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto to teach them to avenge their father's death. The perpetrators of their father's demise see the siblings practicing, and so enlist the help of another revered swordsman, Kojiro ...

The 47 Ronin (1941)

In the early 18th-century, Lord Takumi-no-kami Asano, feuding with Lord Kira, tries to kill his opponent in the corridors of the Shogun's palace. The Shogun sentences Asano to seppuku and deprives the palace and lands from his clan, but does not punish Kir ...

A Man of the Arts (1941)

Follows the life of an illegitimate son of a kabuki actor. ...

Osaka Woman (1940)

When wealthy Ochika marries desolute Danpei, she devotes herself completely to him and takes over her business, to the point of sowing dissensions within the Jōruri troupe in which her husband plays. ...

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

In late 19th-century Tokyo, Kikunosuke Onoue, the adopted son of a legendary actor, himself an actor specializing in female roles, discovers that the praise he receives is only due to his status as his father's heir. Devastated, he turns to Otoku, a servan ...

Ah, My Hometown (1938)

A village romantic drama. (Now lost. ...

The Straits of Love and Hate (1937)

A servant girl is seduced and abandoned by her lover, a man from a higher social class, forcing her to navigate a harsh world as an itinerant performer to survive and raise their child. ...

Sisters of the Gion (1936)

A geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto feels obliged to help her lover when he asks to stay with her after going bankrupt and leaving his wife. However, her younger sister opposes this, thinking that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. ...

Osaka Elegy (1936)

Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss in order to pay her father's debt and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement. ...

Poppy (1935)

Fujio is beautiful, talented, well-heeled, and engaged to up-and-coming diplomat Munechika. She has promised him a gold watch, a family heirloom, as an emblem of their engagement. However, she becomes enamoured with Ono, a student employed to tutor her in ...

Miss Okichi (1935)

Okichi, a woman trapped in a criminal scheme by two con men, finds her life of deception threatened when she unexpectedly falls in love with the son of a wealthy merchant. ...

Oyuki the Virgin (1935)

When a civil war threatens to break out, two geishas flee from their village with aristocrats. During the long journey, the socially inferior women prove to be morally superior to their betters. ...

The Downfall of Osen (1935)

In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When Kumazawa is arrested, Ose ...

The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate (1934)

The tragic loves between a member of the Liberal Party, imprisoned following the Chichibu incident in November 1884, and an actress who resolves to prostitute herself to help him. Considered a lost film. ...

The Feast of Gion (1933)

A sad love film where the action takes place in Kyoto, in a trading house. Considered a lost film. ...

The Water Magician (1933)

Taki no Shiraito is a very independent young woman with a famous water juggling act in a travelling carnival troupe. She falls in love with an orphaned carriage driver Kinya Murakoshi, and pledges to put him through law school in Tokyo. She always encloses ...

The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia (1932)

Propaganda film, presumed lost. ...

And Yet They Go On (1931)

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Released in 2 parts. His only release of 1931. Considered a lost film. ...

Kenji Mizoguchi, le cinéaste à la cicatrice dans le dos (2021)

This is a scar born from a knife strike in the back of the young Mizoguchi, coming from an enamoured jealous prostitute. This event enabled him to become the great cineast of women, and much more ! ...

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975)

In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi. ...