When talking about Kenji Mizoguchi usually his masterpieces "Ugetsu" or "Sansho the Bailiff" come to mind, but his other works should not be overlooked. "A Geisha" (Gion Bayashi, Los músicos de Gion) is a wonderful story of two women who work as geishas, their values and their struggle, with a fascinating hidden message. A gem.
@danidl
There is a nice collection of his work on Archive.org.
I will have to binge it ;)
@ceorl The verbal and nonverbal messages are combined, the director throws in some side message, the scenes are carefully set... so when things actually happen, they've been announced before somehow, or we understand them better because of the visual language previously displayed. This is the kind of cinema I love.
@ceorl Wow, I just had the time to explore the Internet Archive further and I found all these Japanese film gems which I haven't seen yet! Thanks again for mentioning it 😃
* Woman in the Dunes
* The Life of Oharu
* A Story from Chikamatsu
* Tokyo Story
* Onibaba
* The Naked Island
I started with Woman in the Dunes and it's truly amazing!
@danidl
Woman in the Dunes
Oh was that from the Kobo Abe book? I am not sure whether I have seen the movie. Thanks for mentioning ;)
@ceorl Yes, that one! (Just checked Wikipedia). I knew about it long ago, sometimes it was even on tv but I never got to watch it. It has a 8.5 average IMDB rating which is higher than most of the movies in my current favorite films list, and for what I've seen until now, it totally deserves it. Just amazing.
@danidl
I'm watching it too now, and so far uniquely beautiful and pulling me in ;)
@ceorl After a very busy month, I finally finished watching "Woman in the Dunes". It has entered my all time top 10! What a gem.
@danidl
It is an amazing resource.
I think I first fell in love with this period of Japanese cinema thanks to a PBS series. They played Ugetsu, also I recall being quite touched by When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (not by Mizoguchi)
I think that was when I realized there were different ways of telling stories other than straight linear and plot driven.
These films were so atmospheric, often it seemed nothing was happening at all, and yet so intense.