Street of Shame (1956) - Kenji Mizoguchi

Well just as I had commented on Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon and Kurosawa's Madadayo, comes another signature farewell film. There is a sense of melancholy towards this work and the whole film has that feeling like catastrophe is only a moment away. This uneasiness is very common in Mizoguchi's work and if one can say his films collectively represent something I'd say its something of a beauty within suffering, and in particular the suffering of women. It seems perfectly fitting that Mizoguchi's career would end here. It doesn't some up a lifetime of knowledge in the way Madadayo did, but seems a little more aligned with Ozu's last effort. Mizoguchi was not particularly known for his contemporary films, and there is a certain timeless quality to this picture, for as they say it depicts the "oldest profession".

Since plot wise most of these films are somewhat simple, granted there are usually multiple narratives, I tried to focus more on the staging. Throughout the film I didn't notice a single closeup, but despite keeping a physical distance between the camera and the characters he still manages to create a tremendous deal of intimacy. It doesn't take much for us to feel for all of the characters. There are no particularly bad people in the film and even the characters that we may at first resent we leave with a sense of either admiration or at the very least understanding for everyone in the film. No one in particular thinks they're doing anything wrong. Although some may be over rationalizing their decision in life, all are doing what they are out of necessity.