THE LIFE OF OHARU. (1952) DIRECTED, CO-PRODUCED AND CO-WRITTEN BY KENJI MIZOGUCHI. BASED ON VARIOUS STORIES FROM IHARA SAIKAKU'S 'THE LIFE OF AN AMOROUS WOMAN.' STARRING KINUYO TANAKA.
REVIEW BY SANDRA
HARRIS. ©
This
is such a sad film. It's a pretty long film
too, clocking in at a whopping two and a half hours, give or take a
minute or two, but it's such a heartbreaking and beautiful story that
it was worth every second it took to watch it. I was actually in bits
for the rest of the night after watching it.
I
swear to God, I was crying into my wine for the whole evening, and
this time it wasn't about me being let down by some long-haired
douchebag with a lovely five o'clock shadow darkening his manly jaw,
haha. It was a genuine sorrow for poor old Oharu, who may not have
existed herself but women like her
certainly did.
It's
actually quite a simple story to explain. Oharu is a young Japanese
woman from a few centuries ago, the only child of quite ordinary
parents, as opposed to, say, folks of royal parentage, of whom there
are plenty in the film. Naturally, her parents, in particular her
father, are ambitious for her and anxious for her to get on in life.
In those
days, however, that didn't mean getting a nice cosy civil service job with
a pension that set you up for life or doing a course in Business
Administration at the local technical college. In those days, women
often had to do stuff which nowadays would be considered being akin to being sold
into sexual slavery or just plain old prostitution.
In
Oharu's case, she is sent to be the concubine of the local lord for a
bit. He needs a male heir and everyone in the village seems to know
that his wife is 'barren,' which is such a
cruel and harsh word, I've always thought. Oharu is supposed to
supply the lord, this man she's never laid eyes on in her life, with
a son to carry on his name in generations to come.
The
scenes where the lord's assistant or messenger or whatever he'd be called comes to
Oharu's village to hold actual auditions for the role of concubine
are just hilarious. They totally reminded me of when THE
X FACTOR came to Dublin.
The
lord's specifications for his concubine's physical appearance are so
ridiculously precise that only one woman in the village comes
anywhere near
to satisfying them. You've guessed it. Oharu...
So Oharu,
who's still recovering from a dreadfully traumatic experience that occurs at the
start of the film, dutifully goes to the lord's palace and conceives
the heir, much to the delight of her father and the lord.
The lord's
wife has it in for poor Oharu, however. She's understandably jealous
of Oharu's youth and beauty, not to mention her fertility, and so she
sees to it that Oharu gets sent packing back to her father's home
with a big fat flea in her ear, as it were.
So
that's it then. No son, no nice cushy number as the lord's Number One
concubine, no big pay-off, nothing. Not even a 'thanks
for the use of your womb' from
the ungrateful Baby-Daddy, nothing. Zip, nada, zilch.
Oharu's
father is distraught at her return as he's accumulated a ton of debts
on the strength of Oharu's projected future earnings as the most powerful woman
in the village, as the lord's concubine would usually be. Just like
the Van Houtens in THE SIMPSONS when
their son Milhouse gets a role in the new RADIOACTIVE
MAN movie:
'I can't hear you, son, I'm
wearing a jacuzzi suit...!'
Well,
anyway, that's the Dad's own fault, if you ask me, counting his
chickens before they were
hatched. Well, I suppose the
chicken hatched all right, as in a son has been born to the lord, but
it's not going to benefit or enrich Oharu's Dad in any way, shape or
form, much to his disgust.
So
now he has to look for other ways
to make money out of his shell-shocked and traumatised daughter, who's
probably still suffering from post-natal depression. Now she's being
forced out of her baby's life forever. Can things get any worse for
poor Oharu? You bet your sweet ass they can...
This
is the story of a woman's spectacular fall from grace in olden days Japan but, to me
anyway, it's obvious that her downfall is not of her own making. Men
held all the power in those days. (Oh yeah, like
they don't now...!) It
was men and men only who brought her down.
Her
father, who was obsessed with money and social status. The lord who
only wanted Oharu for her ovaries. The dirty old men who thought she
was game for anything just because she'd given birth to the lord's
son. They thought she was good for a bit of a laugh, see, because she was no longer pure and a virgin? Men and
their assumptions! They make me so angry. So how come I can't live
without their sweet, sweet love? Riddle me that,
haha.
There
were other men in Oharu's life too, men who used and abused her just
because she was a courtesan, another of her father's bright ideas. If
you want to see how Oharu's sad but surprisingly long life ends,
you'll have to watch the film, which is out now on special release
from THE CRITERION COLLECTION.
It comes
complete with a load of great special features, including an
introductory commentary by scholar Dudley Andrew and a booklet
featuring an essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez.
The
film's been described as 'the Holy Grail of Japanese
cinema' by one critic
and, by golly, I'm telling you I think he's right. It's really sad
and really long so, if you're like me and you like a good miserable
time every so often weeping and wailing over the lot of women
through the ages, you'll bloody love this Japanese masterpiece with
the visually stunning settings and the marvellous acting. It's a
feast for the eyes and for
the soul.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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