Miss Oyu/Oyu Sama (1951) - Kenji Mizoguchi 

Well amongst remaining Mizoguchi films this was by far my most sought after. While waiting several years for a R1 release I simply gave up and picked up the Eureka release. A decent transfer and a decent segment on the film from Tony Rayns. I was surprised how very little I found written about this film online. The picture is slow paced to a significant fault and seems like a drastic step down amidst Mizoguchi's golden final period. The first film he made for the Daiei company and therefore the inaugural film in a way to this great period. A tale of three people doomed to suffering and longing, making up a somewhat misled and tragic three way love affair. Essentially a man is meeting prospective brides and mistakes his new prospect for her sister. The woman he admires is a widow who is indentured to raise her son with her husband's family. Recognizing the longing her sister agrees to marry the man in order to be a bridge between the two lovers who can't really be together. So they get married in name only so they can remain pure until they can officially be together. In the meantime an awful lot of repressed emotions and a bit of miscasting in the two female leads. For the most part by the time the drama really starts getting going you've been carefully lulled to sleep so it's hard to even care. A bit of a let down following my last excellent Mizo film.