Life of Oharu

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Life of Oharu ★★★½ Diary of Oharu; Saikaku Ichidai Onna 1952

A near masterpiece rivaled only by “Ugetsu” in the Mizoguchi canon, this film details the slow and agonizing moral decline of a woman in feudal Japan, from wife to concubine to prostitute. A scathing portrait of social predestination based on a novel by Ibara Saikaku. In Japanese with English subtitles. 136m/B VHS . JP Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune; D: Kenji Mizoguchi.