Orizuru Osen

Orizuru Osen
	Scene from the film
Directed by	Kenji Mizoguchi
Produced by	Masaichi Nagata
Written by	Tatsunosuke Takashima
Based on	Baishoku Kamo Nanban; by Kyōka Izumi
Starring	Isuzu Yamada; Daijiro Natsukawa; Ichiro Yoshizawa
Narrated by	Suisei Matsui; Midori Sawato
Cinematography	Minoru Miki
Production; company	Daiichi Eiga
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	January 20, 1935 (Japan);
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Orizuru Osen (折鶴お千) (The Downfall of Osen) is a 1935 black and white Japanese silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Isuzu Yamada.[1] It is based on Kyōka Izumi's novel Baishoku Kamo Nanban.[2]

Like most Japanese silent films, it played with benshi accompaniment. The film centers on the theme of the strength of a woman who gives everything to the man she loves; a theme which Mizoguchi explored his whole life. The moving camera technique and bold retrospective scenes greatly reflect Mizoguchi's experimental approach.

Cast

Isuzu Yamada as Osen
Daijiro Natsukawa as Sokichi Hata
Ichiro Yoshizawa as Ukiki
Shin Shibata as Kumazawa
Genichi Fujii as Matsuda
Eiji Nakano as the Professor

Reception

Japanese film scholar Chika Kinoshita noted that the film occupies a special place within the critical reception of Kenji Mizoguchi's oeuvre and it has been singled out as one of the earliest embodiments of his style in the late 1930s.[3]

References

Bock, Audie (1978). Japanese Film Directors. Kodansha. p. 65. ISBN 0-87011-304-6.
McDonald, Keiko (2000). From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films. p. 16.
Kinoshita, Chika (Spring 2011). "The Benshi Track: Mizoguchi Kenji's The Downfall of Osen and the Sound Transition". Cinema Journal. 3. 50. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. p. 1.

External links

Orizuru Osen at IMDb
Orizuru Osen at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)

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[1] Bock, Audie (1978). Japanese Film Directors. Kodansha. p. 65. ISBN 0-87011-304-6.

[2] McDonald, Keiko (2000). From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films. p. 16.

[3] Kinoshita, Chika (Spring 2011). "The Benshi Track: Mizoguchi Kenji's The Downfall of Osen and the Sound Transition". Cinema Journal. 3. 50. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. p. 1.