Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women - Criterion

Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women is a collection of four Kenji Mizoguchi films centered around the plight of women in Japanese society. The titles include “Osaka Elegy”, “Sisters of the Gion”, “Women of the Night”, and “Street of Shame”. 4 discs, 299 minutes. Region 1, NTSC. Japanese audio with English subtitles.

In Osaka Elegy (Naniwa Elegy, 1936) a young woman named Ayako (Isuzu Yamada) becomes her boss’s mistress in an attempt to get enough money to repay her father’s embezzlement debt and prevent him from going to prison for his crime and also to help her brother afford his college tuition. However, her various money-making schemes backfire when she tricks Yoshizo Fujino (Eitaro Shindo) into giving her money and he calls the police.

In Sisters of the Gion (Gion no Shimai, 1936) a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto named Umekichi (Yoko Umemura) allows her lover Furusawa (Benkei Shiganoya) to live with her when he goes bankrupt and leaves his wife. Her younger sister Omocha (Isuzu Yamada) will have none of it, however, and immediately sets out to find wealthy patrons to support them while coming up with devious schemes to get Furusawa out of the picture.

Women of the Night (Yoru no Onna-tachi, 1948) stars Kinuyo Tanaka as Fusako Owada, a young woman in postwar Japan who is the mistress of a notorious drug dealer. Fusako’s already strange life is further thrown into chaos when she discovers that her lover is having an affair with her sister.

In Street of Shame (Akasen Chitai, 1956), five prostitutes struggle with their own financial woes and family issues as the national Diet considers a ban on their chosen profession.

Available at the following retailer(s) on October 21, 2008:

• Amazon.com
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• YesAsia
• HKFlix