Orizuru Osen

Orizuru Osen
Orizuru Osen
	Scene from the film
Directed by	Kenji Mizoguchi
Written by	Tatsunosuke Takashima
Based on	Baishoku Kamo Nanban; by Kyōka Izumi
Produced by	Masaichi Nagata
Starring	Isuzu Yamada; Daijiro Natsukawa; Ichiro Yoshizawa
Narrated by	Suisei Matsui; Midori Sawato
Cinematography	Minoru Miki
Production; company	Daiichi Eiga
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	January 20, 1935 (Japan);
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Orizuru Osen (折鶴お千) (The Downfall of Osen) is a 1935 black and white Japanese silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Isuzu Yamada.^[1] It is based on Kyōka Izumi's novel Baishoku Kamo Nanban.^[2]

Like most Japanese silent films, it played with benshi accompaniment. The film centers on the theme of the strength of a woman who gives everything to the man she loves; a theme which Mizoguchi explored his whole life. The moving camera technique and bold retrospective scenes greatly reflect Mizoguchi's experimental approach.^{[citation needed]}

Cast[]


Actor	Role
Isuzu Yamada	Osen
Daijiro Natsukawa	Sokichi Hata
Ichiro Yoshizawa	Ukiki
Shin Shibata	Kumazawa
Genichi Fujii	Matsuda
Eiji Nakano	the Professor

Reception[]

Japanese film scholar Chika Kinoshita noted that the film occupies a special place within the critical reception of Kenji Mizoguchi's oeuvre and it has been singled out as one of the earliest embodiments of his style in the late 1930s.^[3]

References[]

^ Bock, Audie (1978). Japanese Film Directors. Kodansha. p. 65. ISBN 0-87011-304-6.
^ McDonald, Keiko (2000). From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films. p. 16.
^ Kinoshita, Chika (Spring 2011). "The Benshi Track: Mizoguchi Kenji's The Downfall of Osen and the Sound Transition". Cinema Journal. 3. 50. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. p. 1.

External links[]

Orizuru Osen at IMDb
Orizuru Osen at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)

This article related to a Japanese film of the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

[1] Bock, Audie (1978). Japanese Film Directors. Kodansha. p. 65. ISBN 0-87011-304-6.

[2] McDonald, Keiko (2000). From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films. p. 16.

[3] Kinoshita, Chika (Spring 2011). "The Benshi Track: Mizoguchi Kenji's The Downfall of Osen and the Sound Transition". Cinema Journal. 3. 50. Society for Cinema and Media Studies. p. 1.

[1]

[2]

[3]