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.