Mizoguchi's film full of rage, ambivalence about sex roles
Mizoguchi's film full of rage, ambivalence about sex roles
By Yenni Kwok
JAKARTA (JP): Kenji Mizoguchi is ambivalent. On one hand, he
commiserates with women, but on the other he keeps a distance
from them. He condemns male chauvinism, but respects the male
pride.
These characteristics were observed during Kenji Mizoguchi's
film week, from July 19 to 26, at Taman Ismail Marzuki Art
Center, Central Jakarta.
Most of Mizoguchi's films feature women who have to sell their
bodies as prostitutes or mistresses for their survival.
Indonesian film critic Marselli Sumarno said Mizoguchi's
sympathy towards them might originate from the trauma of his
sister being sold as a geisha.
His rage against the male-chauvinist tradition persists, and
he expresses it through the image of successful men in society.
In his films, samurais, feudal lord characters or rich
businessmen are not good, noble characters. Instead they are
corrupt and opportunist.
In Ugetsu Monogatari (The Ugetsu Story), which is set during
the 1853's Civil War, the samurais are nothing but looters,
killers and rapists. The two main female characters are their
victims; Miyagi is killed while Ohama is raped by the samurais.
The brutality of the samurais is the extreme of the common
expectation for men to be heartless. In Saikaku Ichidai Onna (The
Life of Oharu), Lord Matsudaira has to let Oharu, his mistress,
go because his love for Oharu is so great that "she drains his
energy," as said by the palace council.
Goddess
Indeed, the lessons of Mizoguchi's films seem to be:
compassion is exclusively female, after all the deity of mercy is
a goddess. Moreover, the men who show their compassion have no
place in society.
In Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff), Governor of Mutsu is
banished because he sympathizes with the peasants. Taro Sansho,
who disagrees with slavery, becomes a monk. In The Life of Oharu,
every man who loves Oharu dies.
Although Zushio Taira, a character in Sansho the Bailiff,
succeeds to free Bailiff Sansho's slaves, Taira has to resign
from his position as the governor of Tango. The cruel Bailiff
Sansho is exiled, but the actual owner of the slaves, the
Minister of Right, still prevails.
Even though Mizoguchi was very critical towards heartless men,
he still respects the cultural expectation for men not to be
overly emotional.
When Governor of Mutsu hears he is to be exiled, his face
hardly shows any emotion, he just sits still and remains calm.
Instead, it is the Governor's wife whose face shows anxiety.
In Gion no Shimai (Sisters of Gion), Shimbei Furusawa hardly
shows any gestures of shock when Omocha tells him that her
sister, Umekichi, does not love him anymore.
On the contrary, when Umekichi hears that Furusawa abandons
her, the audience can see her gestures of surprise and agony.
Mizoguchi tended to portray the women's emotions intensively.
When Lady Matsudaira sees Oharu as the new concubine, her
jealousy is very obvious. She repeatedly watches Oharu with envy,
and her breathing is so intense and heavy.
Nonetheless, Mizoguchi still kept some distance from his
female characters. He very rarely used a close-up shot to capture
a character's emotion. The use of a medium shot or a long shot
was more common, such as the medium shot for Lady Matsudaira and
long shot for Umekichi.
Not a pro-feminist
Long shots are common in Mizoguchi's pieces, especially in
Sisters of Gion. On one hand, the viewers tend to be observers
instead of associating themselves with the characters.
Koichi Sato's style, however, is the contrary of Mizoguchi's.
In Tabi no Omosa (Journey into Solitude), Sato used many close-up
shots to capture the girl's emotions.
For Kenji Iwamoto, a film critic, Mizoguchi's preference of
long shots gave an impression that Mizoguchi still views the
women of his age and time from a certain distance. Thus, Iwamoto
concluded Mizoguchi cannot be called pro-feminist.
Most of Mizoguchi's heroines are women who try to break away
from their family circle. The consequence is bitter and nothing
like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Some of the characters have to
endure hardships, such as Oharu or Ayako of Naniwa Erejii (The
Osaka Elegy).
Some viewers may argue Iwamoto's comment that Mizoguchi's
pieces are mostly about "women's tragedies, victimization in a
man's world." In some films, men are victimized as well. For
example, Oharu's first lover, Katsunosuke, is beheaded, while
Oharu and her family are outcast.
However, Katsunosuke's punishment is lighter than Oharu's. His
death is swift while Oharu must bear agony for dozens of years.
The vulnerability of the women is depicted through the use of
high-angle camera shots. Mizoguchi uses this technique to portray
men's exploitation of women.
For example, when Ohama is raped by some samurais, the scene
is shot from a higher angle. This conveys the idea of her
vulnerability. The scene of the defenseless Oharu's being
inspected by Lord Matsudaira's people also uses the high-angle
shot.
Lighting
Though most of Mizoguchi's female characters had to sell their
bodies in order to survive, they raise no sense of pity nor
helplessness. Hanae, a house-wife who falls into prostitution to
support her family in Akasen Chimai (Street of Shame) is never
filmed with any high-angle shots.
Besides camera angles, Mizoguchi also manipulates lighting to
create a certain mood. In The Osaka Elegy, Mizoguchi uses
extremely bright lighting in Oharu's house. This gives an
impression of unnatural atmosphere in Oharu's house.
The deviant nature of the villains is also conveyed by the
lighting, and sometimes with mise-en-scene. In some scenes,
actors faces are illuminated amidst the dark background, giving a
sense of fear and bizarre. The obvious examples are the
priestesses in Sansho the Bailiff and the ghostly Princess Wakasa
in The Story of Ugetsu.
The evil character of Bailiff Sansho, on the other hand, is
symbolized through his ugly face, added by his thorn-like
moustache. With his cruel attitude and ugly face, undoubtedly no
single viewer would sympathize with him.
Iwamoto said Mizoguchi is a realist because Mizoguchi hardly
ever uses symbolic images to convey his ideas. Most of his images
are straight-forward.
For instance, in The Ugetsu Story, the audience can easily
grasp the ghostly and mysterious atmosphere when they see the
mist surrounding the lake, the Wakasa Palace and Genjuro's house.
Masayuki Suo's Fancy Dance, however, is contradictory of
Mizoguchi's films. Suo's is fast, funny and full of symbols. For
example, the scene of bird's droppings on the novice, Yohei
Shiono, is symbolic and indirectly connected with the story. This
symbolic scene will not be found in Mizoguchi's.