Viewed on DVD. Restoration = two (2) stars. Director Kenji Mizoguchi has delivered a sad, often-told, cinematic-tale from Japan's Great Depression. Overall, the photo play is hard to judge because (intentionally and/or due to age-related deterioration) it's hard to see! Scenes seem to use under-lighting and soft focus (perhaps to help hide cheap sets?) with very few close-ups (the Director seems stuck on far and medium shots without using a deep focus process). The lead actress is only seen in close up in the last few seconds of the film. This approach deprives actors/actresses from using the powerful acting tool of facial expressions! It also makes it challenging for the viewer to determine which character is delivering a line when there are two or more actors of the same sex in a scene--the actors' mouth movements can not be immediately discerned. The script resembles Swiss cheese due to the holes caused by many phony co-incidents. However, the photo play ends with many loose ends that viewers can subsequently ponder/discuss (a technique that, if used effectively, can add to a movie's experience). Cinematography contains many tracking shots, but it's hard to see what's being photographed. Sound as judged by contemporary Japanese standards is excellent. Dialog is difficult to understand due to the exclusive use of the Osaka regional dialect with its unique words and phraseology. The viewer will likely be dependent on subtitles and may have little ability to judge just how creative the subtitle author was compared to what was said. Music is undistinguished and limited mostly to the opening credits. Restoration has a very long way to go. Dirt and wear artifacts seem to have been removed, but there are fame jitters during the opening credits and, as previously noted, the film needs a good digital reworking to remove/reduce the ever present darkness and blurriness in most scenes. A film not especially recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

An exceptional film in that it redefines that cinematic, to a degree literary, trope, the femme-fatal. In this film we watch from her perspective. Her transgressions seem themselves a kind of victimization. Not only is sexuality the only tool a woman is given to empower herself in society, but her dignity and her sexuality are therefor put in an antagonistic relation to each other. Sexuality and sincerity become mutually exclusive in the world Mizoguchi paints. The cinematography is magnificent. Everyone looks compromised. But the last shot lets us know which victim's compromise cuts the deepest and. A feminist work in the most profound sense.

After having viewed Mizoguchi's Sisters of Gion, I decided that I really wanted to delve deeper and watch a number of his other films. Knowing that Osaka Elegy in some ways is considered the "prequel" to Sisters of Gion, I decided that it would be the next Mizoguchi film that I would watch.Unlike Sisters of Gion, Osaka Elegy does not revolve around the lives of Geisha and their patrons, but instead on the lives of those living in the bustling industrial center of Japan: Osaka. The opening sequence is quite amazing with the rapidly sped up film displaying the bright nightlife of Osaka, but upon daybreak the city looks quite dreary. While this can be said for many other large cities as well, this opening displays many of the disparities within the film especially those dealing with the poor and the rich and, of course this being a Mizoguchi film, those between men and women.Once again Mizoguchi's star actress Yamada Isuzu plays the central role in this film. However, instead of being a young geisha, Yamada's character Murai Ayako is a telephone girl at a large pharmaceutical company. However, one theme runs through these two roles: the main female character is poor and virtually the only way she can help herself is through a male.Young and attractive, Ayako gains the attention of her boss Asai, a stickler for propriety and who seems to enjoy bossing people around, however, she continues to wield off his "affections" because she is in love with Nishimura. However, Ayako's family is in quite a situation. Her father has embezzled some money from his company and if he does not pay it back he will go to jail. Being that Nishimura is unable, or maybe unwilling, to raise the money, Ayako accepts Asai's offer to become his mistress for money. However, this is only the beginning.Like Sisters of Gion, Osaka Elegy shows the role money and power have in the control of relationships and the precarious tightrope that many poor women had to walk during this period of Japanese history. Ayako is doing her best to support her family, a father, younger sister, and she even pays the tuition for her older brother, but saving face plays a more important role in her family than her actions to help save it. A wonderful film from one of Japan's early masters, Osaka Elegy is a must for those interested in pre-1945 Japanese film.

It was this film alone that drove me into an intense obsession with cinema. Mizoguchi is the great Japanese master, and Osaka Elegy reveals his genius. From his long take compositions that are taxed with complexity and tension, to his ambigious depictions of character, I felt like I had grown after I had seen this film. Notice the national allegory at the film's conclusion, a confused and lonely Japan. And his inconclusive final shot taken many years before the well known 400 Blows. The devastating melodrama is not undercut by any cinematic manipulation. I highly recommend this to any lover of the cinematic medium. Also, I am a sucker for self-reflexive Kabuki theater sequences...