Carlotta: Coffrets Kenji Mizoguchi

[the dancing kid]

Anti-war sentiments were practically mandatory in the Occupation era (due to the demands of US censors).

I'm not sure I agree. American censors were uncomfortable with almost any reference to the war, even anti-war sentiments. There were indirect visual representations of the war, such as graveyards, but you didn't see a lot of explicitly anti-war content until after the Occupation. The most visible agenda being pushed by the Occupying forces was a focus on liberalism and heterosexuality.

However, in my opinion most of the anti-war content in the later post-war films is more useful at indexing the cognitive dissonance of Japan's political culture than it is in showing how successful the Occupation project had been. Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto's essay on post-war melodrama made in Japan does a great job of articulating the "victim consciousness" of these films.

Lots of risque stuff (though mild compared to later films) started cropping up after the war. "Bad girl" films were quite popular then.

While it's true that there was more sexually themed content in Japanese films than American films, I'm not sure if I would categorize them as risque. Films like Teenage Sex Manual were basically after school special style films that tried to portray the "dangers of youth" and such. The girls in these films weren't usually bad, but rather misled and abused by their boyfriends and other men.

Women and women's bodies were definitely one of the main battlefields of post-war Japanese social life, but women didn't become real agents in film until the fifties as far as I can tell. The social and political of emasculation of men was present in films almost immediately after the way, since the trauma of the war was placed completely on the shoulders of men

[iangj]

Apart from Oyuki the Virgin I cannot identify the other two titles from this coffret

Perhpas Michael could oblige before I run amok and order it.

La cicogne en papier [aka O'sen aux cigognes de papier] = The Downfall of Osen 1935

Les coquelicots = Poppy 1935

Maybe Carlotta should have called this Mizoguchi 1935...

[sidehacker]

Off-topic, but sort of not: has anyone seen the French disc of Sisters of the Gion mentioned towards the bottom of the page?

[sidehacker]

Completely off-topic, looks like Carlotta is putting out a Yoshishige Yoshida boxset as well.

[Ornette]

David, you can find a review of T-Men and on the Beaver and here's a review comparing the Sony and VCI editions of Raw Deal (no idea about the Wildside edition, but I've a feeling it ain't much of an improvement -- would love to be proven wrong though).

I'm beginning to think, fuck my lousy French skills, I'm going to buy these boxes anyway. It's like torture waiting for these to be released with English subs. I just bit the bullet for Remorques and Gueule d'amour, so it's not that far off.

And David, be sure to post some screengrabs from the Mizo coffret!

[Michael Kerpan]

You're probably right given the relative obscurity of these thirties titles (I have not seen any of them, and I've probably seen more Mizo than most people.) .

Downfall of Osen is the biggest gem of the three (and it is also available on subbed DVD from Japan -- with benshi narration).

Oyuki is fascinating -- in that one begins thinking of Ford's Stagecoach (not yet made) pretty early on. ;~} Dramatic credibility is not the film's strong point -- but there are some pretty impressive scenes in this.

Poppy made the vaguest impression on me when I watched it. It seemed much closer to Naruse territory than to the flashier sort of stories Mizo was typically working with in this period.

Surely SOMEONE will come out with a decent subbed version of Sisters of Gion.

[ptmd]

Surely SOMEONE will come out with a decent subbed version of Sisters of Gion.

Sisters of Gion is a Janus title, they just sent a new print traveling around the country two years ago, and I have it on good authority that it's coming to DVD relatively soon along with the other 30s Mizoguchi films Janus owns (i.e., Story of the Late Chrysanthemums and Osaka Elegy; Janus no longer has prints of the latter, but I'm pretty sure they still have the rights). My guess is that this is a forthcoming Eclipse set, but that's certainly no reason to wait on buying the Carlotta set because it's extremely unlikely that Poppy or Oyuki the Virgin are going to be released on DVD with English subtitles anywhere in the foreseeable future.

[whaleallright]

I hope the elements they use for the DVD transfers are better than the 35mm print they've been circulating, which was scratchy and washed-out. I have hopes, since the print of SANSHO DAYU that was circulating looked worse than the DVD (which isn't perfect itself).

My guess is that the Japanese rights-owners may have invested in a digital restoration and didn't output that restoration to 35mm, but instead made contact prints to circulate.

[ptmd]

My guess is that the Japanese rights-owners may have invested in a digital restoration and didn't output that restoration to 35mm, but instead made contact prints to circulate.

I think that's exactly right, although, in some cases, the original elements are also in terrible condition. Utamaro is in particularly bad shape, a situation compounded by the fact that apparently the negative no longer exists and everybody has to work from dupe prints. I've seen the Japanese Sisters of the Gion disc and while it looks a bit better than the Janus print (only in terms of scratches, wear, etc.; no matter how good the DVDs look, Mizoguchi's films invariably look and work better on celluloid), it doesn't look nearly as good as, say, the Japanese prints and DVDs of some of the early Ozu films. This is yet another reason why I feel like the 30s and 40s Mizoguchi films that Janus owns are going to end up as an Eclipse set. The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums is as good as anything Mizoguchi ever did, but there's no way they could make it look as good as Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, etc.

[sidehacker]

I thought Zangiku looked excellent, personally. I've seen (examples of) the film in much worse condition. Then again, I have yet to have the privelege of seeing a theatrical screening.

What about the MK2 release of Osaka Elegy? I'm sure that's better than my current VHS.

[sidehacker]

Thanks, David. I would have never noticed those otherwise as I tend to stay away from that thread for fear that my computer will explode. Though oddly enough, I actually posted on that page. Uhh anyway, thanks!

[Michael Kerpan]

Osaka ELegy is mislabeled as Naniwa Onna!

How could they mistake "Naniwa ereji" for "Naniwa onna" -- especially when the latter is one of Mizoguchi's fabled lost films....

[Michael Kerpan]

MIchael as you are prefectly well aware I personally mislabelled Naniwa Eleji as Naniwa Onna.

I have totally no skills in Kanji transliteration! And , as you are well aware the fucking amazon.fr site initially advertised this title as Naniwa Onna.

So goofups bigtime are entirely mine.

If Amazon France misidentified it -- how is the goof-up yours? I'd put all the blame on them....

;~}

("Onna" is one kanji character I _do_ recognize -- though it can be "pronounced" in many different ways. I wouldn't ever recognize "ereji" -- without a dictionary).

[ptmd]

Glancing briefly there's a clip from Straits of Love and Hate which gives me hope this title may also see the light of day

This has actually been released on a DVD with a surprisingly good transfer in Japan. It shouldn't be too hard to port it over, but, on the other hand, I would think that if they had plans to do so they would have included it in the 30s box (since it's probably too obscure to sell well on its own). Maybe Criterion will try to license it for their Eclipse set.

[Michael Kerpan]

I think the Japanese DVD of Aienkyo (Straits of Love and Hate) is positively abysmal. I have been told that a much better print exist in (a European?) archive.

The film itself is intriguing -- it features a heroine who (ultimately) decides she's had enough of self-sacrifice to male pusillanimity. ;~}

[ptmd]

I think the Japanese DVD of Aienkyo (Straits of Love and Hate) is positively abysmal. I have been told that a much better print exist in (a European?) archive.

It's not in great shape, but it's surprisingly good given the rarity and condition of the film. My understanding is that there is only one unsubtitled print of Aienkyo in existence at this point, and it's the Japanese one used for the DVD. That print is normally kept under lock and key at the National Film Center in Tokyo (for obvious reasons), so just being able to see the film at all is quite something, which is perhaps why I'm more forgiving of the video quality.