Japanese master

This is only the second Mizoguchi film that I have seen and on that evidence he ranks with Ozu and Kurosawa as a great Japanese director of world cinema. Only four of his films are available here and I am certainly looking forward to seeing them all. Mizoguchi was a perfectionist and always adopted a visual style and length of scene to match his purpose. Scenes are photographed from a certain distance and last for just as long as he considered necessary for the psychological realisation of the scene itself. The pictorial beauty ravishes the eye even on the small screen. In this example of his storytelling skill we are presented with a insightful view of the grasping Japanese middle classes, morally bankrupt from the effects of the Second World War. He contrasts this loveless world with the simple values of a woman who refuses to follow her heart even although her husband is cruel and unfeeling towards her. I will not reveal the ending; suffice it to say that the key woman in the story ends by accepting that you cannot stand in the way of change even if it seems to be a backward step. I would not say that this film is perfect but it is illuminating of the human condition, the effect that our own personal choices have on the lives that we lead and our often powerless condition to stop others from disabling our lives (if only temporarily). At one point one of the characters says that freedom gives him power. He discovers that often it does not: it is often an illusion that leaves us in chains.