If you would do a poll on the greatest Japanese directors most people would usually site Akira Kurosawa as number one and Yasujiro Ozu as number two. Kenji Mizoguchi usually ends up at number three and is less discussed in film circles. It’s unfortunate that Mizoguchi isn’t as known in the west as Kurosawa and Ozu because his films are just as important, poetic and say as much about Japanese culture then the other two filmmakers. Mizoguchi was loved by the French critics of Cahiers du cinema, describing him as not only the greatest of Japanese masters but high in the ranks of the filmmakers who have ever practiced the art. Director Jean-Luc Godard declared him as “The greatest of Japanese filmmakers,” and French critic Jean Douchet stated, “Kenji Mitzoguchi: Like Bach, Titian, and Shakespeare, is the greatest in his art.” Mizoguchi began his career in the silent era and had various early successes throughout the 30’s and 40’s with Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939) and The 47 Ronin (1941). It was in the 50’s where Mizoguchi, working under the Daiei production company, began making most of his cinematic masterpieces including The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and Street of Shame (1956). Mizoguchi had his own personal themes that he continuously focused on in his work which included poverty, greed, morality, redemption and a women’s place in Japanese society. He is known for the elegance of his compositions, the tact of his camera movement, and of his famous ‘one scene, one shot’ theory. His style avoids close-ups and instead links the characters to their environment which creates tension and psychological density. Ozu had a similar technique in his films but the difference with Ozu was that he never moved his camera, unlike Mizoguchi which was a more fluid poetic style. Some critics have questioned Mizoguchi’s feminism, as many have speculated that he harbored feelings of guilt regarding women and sought their forgiveness through the messages of his films. However that may be, he was a critic of male hierarchy and Japanese society, whose wrongs were for him most evident in the wrongs done to women. Mizoguchi made the subject of prostitution into a frequent theme throughout his work and it has been claimed that The Life of Oharu was one of Mizoguchi’s favorite projects, probably because it drew from roots in his own life. Mizoguchi was known to frequent brothels, not simply to purchase favors, but to socialize with their workers. These brothels made a great impression on the director, and that even his own sister Suzo, who raised him, was ultimately sold by their father as a geisha, which frightfully mirrors the tragic fate of the main protagonist in the film.