STREET OF SHAME (1956) -- The New Japan

In this fascinating sequence, Mizoguchi cogently scrutinises the changing dynamics of postwar Japan. Alluding to his nation's increasing Westernisation (note the music that opens the clip, and the reference to a sexualised Hollywood icon that closes it), the director unravels the traditional reverence of the family unit - thereby allowing a daughter to rebel against, and then outright decry her father with a scintillating burst of female solidarity. An old and haggard patriarchy is little match for such emotionally-liberated women - and yet Mizoguchi is careful to recognise the limitations of her freedom: the central reunion being intercut by a scene that reinforces Mickey's possession by another, equally irrelevant patriarch. Our heroine may have emancipated herself from one oppressive system, but she remains firmly (and, the director appears to suggest, perhaps even wilfully) entrenched within another. There remains a whole lot more rebuilding work to be done in Mizoguchi's conception of the new Japan.

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Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• kenji
• mizoguchi
• street
• of
• shame
• akasen
• chitai
• japan
• japanese
• cinema
• classics
• machiko
• kyo
• patriarchy
• prostitution

[mafesas]

Just saw recently, wonderful film :D

Nice description, thanks for sharing ^_^