Star Review
Japanese master Kenji Mizoguchi only made two films in color; this double-bill includes one of them¬—Yokihi (a.k.a. Empress Yang Kwei Fei, 1955)—plus his final work, Akasen Chitai (a.k.a. Street of Shame, 1956). No other filmmaker has expressed the tragic, sacrificial role of women in patriarchal societies with greater feeling or aesthetic grace, so it’s fitting that Mizoguchi concluded his career with a tale of five prostitutes. Each suffers from financial burdens; each struggles with her personal conscience in a postwar era that promises imminent anti-prostitution bills. Famed for his evocative period pieces, Mizoguchi offers this strikingly realistic—harsh yet hopeful—view of contemporary society.
Set in the opulent T’ang Dynasty in China, Yokihi is a visually astonishing, tragic fairytale about a servant girl who becomes the lover of a widowed king; she soon finds herself enmeshed in courtly intrigues, revenge and betrayal. The film’s colorful palette becomes a painterly expression of the art of artifice: Andrew Sarris famously described it as “one of the most beautiful films ever to treat beauty as a subject.”
Doug Cummings on 6th May 2008
View all 26 of Doug Cummings’s reviews
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Film Description
This fourth and final double-bill in Masters of Cinema's Mizoguchi series pairs his highly respected final film, Akasen Chitai, with a lesser known rarity, Yokihi, made a year earlier and one of only two films Mizoguchi made in colour.
Akasen Chitai [Red Light District, aka Street of Shame] presents a vivid portrait of prostitution in 1950s Japan. In a Tokyo brothel named Dreamland – an obvious irony given the faded hopes of those who work there – the lives of five prostitutes intersect. Each has a very different story for how they entered the profession, but what they share is the struggle to make sense of the red light district and its cycle of exploitation. Filmed shortly before the Japanese government's introduction of an anti-prostitution bill, Akasen Chitai is a compelling study of women torn between financial necessity and questions of conscience. It was nominated for the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and inspired French critic Jean Douchet to proclaim: "For me, along with Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux and Renoir's La Règle du Jeu, the greatest film in the history of cinema".
Set many centuries earlier, Yokihi [Imperial Concubine Yang, aka Yang Kwei Fei] recounts the Chinese legend referred to in its title. In eighth-century T'ang China, widowed Emperor Hsüan-tsung (Masayuki Mori) reigns alone, devoting his life to the composition of music. When he meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman (Machiko Kyo), who will become his imperial concubine, a tale of political intrigue and rival dynasties is set in motion, with ultimately tragic consequences.
Sumptuously filmed in vibrant colour, Yokihi is the most ancient of Mizoguchi's costume dramas, yet its central themes of passion, sorrow, and the conflict between love and power remain timeless – it was also nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice.
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Ugetsu Monogatari + Oyu-Sama (Masters of Cinema)
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Akasen Chitai + Yokihi (Masters of Cinema)
