Floating Weeds (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1959): Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devastating revenge. Beautifully composed and... surperbly played 'Floating Weeds' is one of Ozu's most affecting poignant and powerful films. The End Of Summer (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1961): This penultimate film by Japanese master director Yasujiro Ozu examines the difficulties faced by the Kohayagawa family as they struggle to adapt their traditional values to a rapidly changing post-war Japan. As the family's generations-old sake making business begins to fail in the face of increasingly fierce competition Manbei the incorrigible elderly patriarch rekindles an affair with an old flame much to the disapproval of his daughter Fumiko. He is further distracted by his attempts to marry off his other two daughters: Akiko the eldest and a widow with a small son and Noriko the youngest who is still single. A sublime bittersweet elegy for a vanishing world The End of Summer is beautifully shot in muted colour elegantly acted and masterfully directed by one of the 20th Century's greatest filmmakers. The Lady of Musashino (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1951): Mizoguchi's dissection of the Japanese reaction to the aftermath of war as a fastidiously moral woman faces upheaval with the changing times brought about by the new post-Imperial period... The Life of Oharu (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1952): In feudal Japan the daughter of a samurai Oharu falls in love with a man below her station. Expelled from the castle in Kyoto her family tries to regain respectability but Oharu is forced into a new life as a concubine and then a fallen woman ever hoping to preserve some semblance of purity in a corrupt world... [show more]
This box set collects four meditative films from two of the world's greatest film artists both being praised from sources as diverse as David Bordwell, to Jean-Luc Godard, to Olivier Assayas. Artificial Eye follows through with impressive, though imperfect, transfers of all four films.
These are the only existing editions of the two Mizoguchi films (Life of Oharu, and Lady of Musashino, two of my favorites) with English subtitles. Despite the fact that the subtitles on "Life of Oharu" leave something to be desired (often using the word 'you' instead of 'your' and going without translation for up to five consecutive one-word sentences in a row), it is an essential addition to any English-subtitled Japanese film collection.
Though titles like 'Ugetsu' and 'Sansho the Bailiff' are favorites among Mizoguchi fans, I find these two titles more emotionally gripping and subtle than the previous two mentioned.
All four films are made at the height of each of these highly prolific director's maturity in style.
Ozu's films mark a beginning of his use of color, one of the last films with Setsuko Hara (The End of Summer), and the beginning of working with a new cast pool in a different film production company.
For anyone with access to a region 1 player, the eclipse 'Late Ozu' box set is by far the better alternative for the two Ozu films, but as the box-set can often be found for cheaper than any two of the films, and is highly recommended.
Four films by two great masters.
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