The Life of Oharu

A film set in seventeenth-century Japan. Oharu was raised at court. When her relationship with a man of lower rank is discovered, her family is exiled and he is executed. What follows is a long descent. Oharu is taken into a daimyo's household to bear a child; once the boy is born she is put out. She is sold because of her father's debts. Then she is a servant, then married to a merchant, then on the street. At every stage the decision belongs to someone else: her father, her lord, her husband, her customer. At no point is Oharu granted a choice. The film opens with the old Oharu remembering, so we know from the start where it ends. The director's method is distance. The camera works in long takes, there are almost no close-ups, and the dramatic moments are often left outside the frame. The source is Ihara Saikaku's novel. Kinuyo Tanaka plays Oharu, in a performance counted among the most-cited in Japanese cinema. Toshiro Mifune is in the cast. Kenji Mizoguchi directed. The film won a prize in Venice and brought him international recognition. One of the strongest examples of its kind for anyone who likes Japanese classics and social criticism. For a viewer looking for hope, the film goes downwards from beginning to end and offers no compensation at any stage.