Zangiku monogatari
Kenji Mizoguchi (1939)
This is the oldest Japanese film I’ve ever seen and I think it always will be. I left after an hour, some of which I spent asleep. It’s not that I thought it was bad; it just meant nothing to me. According to the BFI programme note, other Mizoguchi films of the period have been lost and the condition of this one was such that I sometimes found it difficult to work out from the faces and voices which character was speaking. That’s an indication of how detached from the story – of a young working woman who sacrifices all for the love and career of a Kabuki actor – I was. The line readings came across as toneless except for the heroine’s (and hers as monotonously impassioned). Images and subtitles appeared and disappeared without my taking in their meaning, let alone connecting them. On the way home, I read the programme note and thought The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums sounded fascinating. On paper.
21 March 2011
