A Role Perfect For Machiko KyôIn 1951, Machiko Kyô made six films and in 1952, she made another two. This was one hard- working actress. Possibly this could be the reason why Kinuyo Tanaka is cast in the leading role of Ohara in Kenji Mizoguchi's aikaku ichidai onna/The Life of Oharu (1952). Unfortunately, Kinuyo Tanaka is miscast as Ohara. She succeeds in the later half of the film as an ageing prostitute but is totally unconvincing as a young and desirable beauty. This becomes even more of an issue each time a character refers to Ohara as uniquely beautiful.The Life of Oharu is a catalogue of a young woman's downfall in 17th century Japan. The film goes from one tragedy to the next without much pause or relief.Kenji Mizoguchi is a brilliant director, so there are some stunning moments within the movie but it is irrevocably harmed by the casting of Kinuyo Tanaka. The role of Ohara should have been played by Machiko Kyô and her immense talent would have most certainly elevated this movie. In 1953, Machiko Kyô stole the show as the ghost Lady Wakasa in Kenji Mizoguchi's classic film, Ugetsu monogatari (1953) and again as Mickey in the classic Akasen chitai/Street Of Shame (1956).

An ageing prostitute, Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), walks slowly through the back streets of her patch, she's tired and cold and bemoans the lack of business, she gathers around a fire with her colleagues for some warmth and some chat. One of her colleagues asks her about her past as a courtesan, but emotionally scarred, Oharu is unable to discuss it and goes on her way. She enters a local temple, where there are many statues of Buddha's disciples, these faces bring back memories of her turbulent life, one in particular triggers flashbacks of better times….Once as a courtesan Oharu had enjoyed the splendour of fine things with her parents. One day Oharu is tricked into a meeting with a nobleman by his servant, Katsunosuke(Toshiro Mifune), once alone he comes clean and pledges his love for her, at first she spurns him because of their different social status, but then she pledges her undying love to him, but their tryst is stopped in its tracks by a court official who catches them together. Oharu and her family are banished into exile, Katsunosuke fares much worse and is beheaded for his crime. Now broke and desolate, her father threatens to sell her to make ends meet, however an envoy from Lord Harutaka Matsudaira spots her and offers her the opportunity of becoming the Lord's concubine, as his present wife is sickly and unable to bear him a child. She finally agrees and dutifully bears him the son and heir he requested. Contrivances and petty jealousies then conspire to see her thrown out of her new home right after the birth, this however is just the beginning of her tortuous labyrinthine passage through life….Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1952 Venice Film festival, The Life of Oharu is an adaptation of Saikaku Ihara's novel "Koshuku Ichidai Onna that follows familiar territory for the great Mizoguchi, who is perhaps best known for his tales of devastating loss and injustice, in particular when they are from the woman's point of view. Oharu is truly, an epic and compelling chronicle of a journey of brief highs and truly shocking lows for the main protagonist, Mizoguchi's film is a powerful critique of the Feudal class structure and how it unjustly destroyed many lives of ordinary people. Despite its Feudal setting it still feels very relevant and contemporary , its themes being timeless. The film is awash with elegance and is beautifully filmed by Yoshimi Hirano and Yoshimi Kono with all the flowing movement you might expect from the directors work, it gives life and symmetry to the wonderful period sets. The acting is also superb in its simplicity, some of their merest movements providing great power to the final product. Mizoguchi constantly plays with the viewers emotions without ever becoming preachy, just when you think Oharu has turned a corner, we are devastated by another unflinching twist of fate, its this pattern which gives the film an overall downbeat feeling, that shows Mizoguchi's mastery of the medium.

Deeply tragic and sad tale that is nevertheless presented to us with great dignity and style. A tale of the harshness of feudal Japan and the way the men treat the women is unfortunately not without its echo, even today in that great country. A woman here, originally of noble beginnings, makes bad, then good, then more and more bad and none of it of her making. She is simply the result in men's dealings and hypocrisies. Still beautiful to look at though with the magical camera-work and immaculate direction. Some slight confusions at first until we realise that time jumps at the blink of an eye and before we know it one period has slid effortlessly into another, where inevitably another tragedy awaits our fallen heroine.

The movie is about dramatic tale of a girl from noble samurai family at the service of Imperial Court in Kyoto, who fells in love with a man from a lover rank, and with her love unleashes the calamities emanating from conservative Japanese society and fate. After her fault was discovered she and her family were exiled and her beloved got executed for his transgression. Before his execution he sends Oharu a message instructing her to be happy with a man she would love and not to submit to the authority of the feudal structure by surrendering herself to the dictum of society. With the combined forces of society and fate Oharu experiences most tragic things that may befall on a woman. She gets sold as a concubine to a noble court to breed a heir for the Lord, then her son was taken away from her and she was dismissed. Later in order to pay his debts her father sells her into Shimabara to be a courtesan. Afterwards she was forced to prostitution and once lady at imperial court Oharu's calamitous life of ends up as a beggar. So we see a steep fall of a woman from top of the society to the bottom. However she stays loyal to the request of her beloved – all the time she was forced to surrender her body, but she keeps her soul. In this utterly materialistic and cruel world, with its stunning means of subjugation – she rejects all these values. Oharu rejects going to house of Lord as a commodity although she may well gain her lost status and favor of the Lord there. She cries only when her son was taken away from her, she cries when her fan maker husband gets killed, etc. For e.g. when she was living in destitute as a prostitute – her mother comes and brings her good news that the Lord wants to live with her. Her mother also puts emphasis on material aspects of this news, whereas this only instigates hope in Oharu for a chance to meet her son but for nothing else in material terms. But again it comes out that she was summoned for the shame she brought to the royal court and she was convicted to be exiled. They do not give her a chance to meet her son. She runs away and ends her tumultuous career as a beggar.So, Mizoguchi represents life of a woman who was made subject to customs of utterly materialistic and oppressive feudalistic society. In a sense Oharu emerges as a victorious from this struggle, she keeps what her first beloved asked from her. But she is not represented as an active actor – struggling and showing resistance. She is very passive, submissive and docile. So her victory is not in material sense. She experiences a downfall from the highest rank of being lady at imperial court to be a concubine at a lover court, and then she becomes a courtesan, then a prostitute and ends up as a beggar. But alongside with this fall there is rise of Oharu in idealistic terms with her denial and defiance in the face of this materialistic dictum. She never surrenders to and internalizes the values of the society she lives in. So this fall in materialist terms is accompanied with the rise of her soul with its lofty values. In this sense it is meaningful that she ends up as a beggar which can be seen as total rejection of material life.Lastly, it is interesting that events are not presented from the point of view of Oharu. Neither it is from the other – feudalistic side. Actually Oharu herself is a passive actor. It is more like an objective camera representing us a tale of a women. This respect of the movie makes it one sui generis among many others that were shot on the similar topics.