![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/1f/57/001c571f_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/1f/57/001c571f.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [Masters of Cinema #56/57]
2xDVD9 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:42:14 + 01:23:58 | 7,62 Gb + 6,42 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Romance | Japan
2xDVD9 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:42:14 + 01:23:58 | 7,62 Gb + 6,42 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Romance | Japan
Based on a centuries old tale with roots in real events, Chikamatsu Monogatari [A Tale From Chikamatsu, aka The Crucified Lovers] tells the hauntingly tragic story of a forbidden love affair between a merchant's wife, Osan (Kyoko Kagawa), and her husband's employee, Mohei (Kazuo Hasegawa), in an era when the punishment for adultery was crucifixion. When a series of innocent events lead to the false accusation of an affair between Osan and Mohei, the accused pair are forced to flee an almost certain death sentence. On the run, the outlaw couple grow closer together, drawn inexorably towards the romantic crime of which they are accused. In the hands of Mizoguchi, Chikamatsu Monogatari depicts two people caught up in a constricted world where true love and social obligation are at odds. His portrayal of the lovers' dilemma lead famed director Akira Kurosawa to describe the film as "a great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi."
Released the same year, Uwasa no Onna [The Woman in the Rumour] offers a contrasting portrait of attitudes and mores concerning love and relationships. Set in a modern Kyoto geisha house, the eponymous woman in the rumour is Hatsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka, star of countless Mizoguchi films, in her last role for the director with whom she was often romantically linked), madame of her own geisha house. When Hatsuko ends up pursuing the same man as her daughter, Yukiko (Yoshiko Kuga), both women are forced to confront their attitudes towards each other and the family business. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present these films for the first time on home video in the UK.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 2xdisc special edition containing new film restorations of both films, New and improved English subtitles, Video discussions about both Chikamatsu Monogatari and Uwasa no Onna by acclaimed Japanese film expert/critic, festival programmer, and filmmaker Tony Rayns, Original theatrical trailers, as well as extracts from Chikamatsu Monzaemon's 'The Almanac of Love' and Ihara Saikaku's 'What the Seasons Brought to the Almanac-Maker', texts adapted by Mizoguchi in Chikamatsu Monogatari.
DVDBeaver
Masters of Cinema
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![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/48/57/001c5748_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/48/57/001c5748.jpeg)
Chikamatsu monogatari (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #57]
DVD9 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:42:14 | 7,62 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Romance | Japan
DVD9 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:42:14 | 7,62 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Romance | Japan
In 17th century Kyoto, Osan is married to Ishun, a wealthy miserly scroll-maker. When Osan is falsely accused of having an affair with the best worker, Mohei, the pair flee the city and declare their love for each other. Ishun orders his men to find them, and separate them to avoid public humiliation.
IMDB
Chikamatsu monogatari (A Tale of Chikamatsu or Chikamatsu story – Monzaemon Chikamatsu is the name of original author) is a story well known in Japan, not least through its bunraku puppet and kabuki theatre incarnations, on which this film adaptation appears to be primarily based. It's not hard to see why it was handed to Mizoguchi Kenji, a man not notorious for tales in which characters lie untroubled lives and for whom things work out well in the end. Mind you, even by his standards the characters here take their first steps on the slippery slope of misfortune at a surprisingly early stage.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6f/57/001c576f_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]]()
The setup is somewhat convoluted and delivered at quite a pace. In 17th Century Kyoto, the wealthy Ishun runs a successful print house whose current reputation is owed in part to his best worker, the genial Mohei. Fellow worker Otama dotes on Mohei but has her hands full fighting off the unwelcome advances of Ishun, whom she attempts to discourage by claiming that she and Mohei are engaged to be married, a pretence Mohei is too honest to uphold. Ishun's wife Osan, meanwhile, is approached individually by her idle brother and concerned mother for a loan to prevent the seizure of their house and imprisonment for non-payment of loans. With little chance of securing the money from her miserly husband, Osan approaches Mohei, who is also responsible for the firm's accounts, to see if he can arrange the loan for her, a favour he willingly agrees to. In the process of juggling the books, Mohei is caught out by fellow worker Sukeyemon, who agrees to turn a blind eye if Mohei steers some of the money his way. Mohei refuses and is promptly shopped to Ishun by Sukeyemon. With me so far? Well we're just getting started.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/69/57/001c5769_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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Ishun is outraged by this betrayal of trust, but Otama, knowing nothing of the arrangement between Osan and Mohei, falsely claims that Mohei was stealing the money for her. Ishun is having none of it and orders that Mohei be locked up until the authorities can be contacted to drag him away. Osan talks to Otama and learns the truth about her husband's night-time visits and decides to catch him in the act by swapping sleeping quarters with her and lying in wait for him. Instead she is visited by Mohei, who has escaped his temporary prison and has come to bid Otama goodbye. When Osan reveals her identity, Mohei renews his pledge to find the money she requires, but when the two are discovered together, Ishun accuses Osan of having an affair with Mohei, who has already fled the scene. Refusing to listen to Osan's explanation, Ishun suggests that she take her own life. Instead she leaves and by chance meets up with Mohei, and despite the risk of being labelled adulterers, a crime that carries the sentence of death by crucifixion, the two go on the run, pursued by Ishun's agents with orders to keep news of the affair from spreading and harming his prestigious business.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6a/57/001c576a_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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And this is only the set-up. It would take another couple of sizeable paragraphs to get us to the last act, a journey that sees matters complicate further for Mohei and Osan and the weeping Otama all but drop out of the story. The characters and their arcs of fate have a familiar Mizoguchi ring, with the good-hearted falling victim to ill fortune and the self-centred whims of those in positions of authority, and in the feeling that from even the early scenes that the story is unlikely to end well for anyone. The potential fate that hangs over the fleeing Mohei and Osan is graphically illustrated just ten minutes into the film when the wife of a samurai and her lover and paraded through the streets and publicly crucified, while even Ishun is far from safe, as scheming business rival Isan works to use the news of Osan's supposed adultery to unseat his position of local power and influence.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6b/57/001c576b_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]]()
In his accompanying featurette, Tony Rayns makes the case for Chikamatsu monogatari as a minor Mizoguchi work that the director himself approached with something close to indifference. The director's attitude to the project and his frequent disagreements with leading man Kazuo Hasegawa have certainly been documented in the memoirs of colleagues, but I'd still argue that this is very recognisably and positively a Mizoguchi film, in the sense of doom that hovers over the main characters from an early stage, in its character and narrative detail, and in the way the good-hearted suffer as a result of the selfish actions of the indifferent of those in power or, in the case of the unprincipled and ambitious Sukeyemon, those who seek to wield it. The pacing is typically brisk, perhaps more so than usual for Mizoguchi due to the density of the early plotting, while a kabuki influence is keenly felt throughout, particularly in the way action is sometimes staged within frame and location and in Hayasaka Fumio and Mochizuki Tamezô's almost theatrical score.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6c/57/001c576c_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]]()
It's likely in part Mizoguchi's lack of enthusiasm for the project that prompts the knowledgeable Mr. Rayns to suggest that his handling of the film is somewhat academic and that the drama fails to engage as it should. I don't agree. It may not have the searing dramatic power of the director's finest work, but Chikamatsu monogatari still grips in its storytelling and elicits strong sympathy for its luckless lead characters, whose moving and irony-tinged fate is sealed by their emerging true feelings for each other, which might never have surfaced had they not been accused of infidelities they never actually committed.Slarek, DVD Outsider
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6f/57/001c576f.jpeg)
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/69/57/001c5769.jpeg)
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6a/57/001c576a.jpeg)
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6b/57/001c576b.jpeg)
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6c/57/001c576c.jpeg)
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6e/57/001c576e_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/6e/57/001c576e.jpeg)
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![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/42/57/001c5742_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/42/57/001c5742.jpeg)
Uwasa no Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56]
DVD9 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:23:58 | 6,42 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Romance | Japan
DVD9 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:23:58 | 6,42 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Romance | Japan
Hatsuko Umabuchi is a widow who runs a prosperous geisha house in present day Kyoto. Her daughter Yukiko returns from Tokyo following a failed suicide attempt, after her lover found out about her mother's profession. Hatsuko is having a discrete affair with the young Dr. Matoba, who looks after the geisha girls. The doctor is attracted to Yukiko, who initially despises him and everything connected with the geisha house. However Yukiko gradually changes her views.
IMDB
Uwasa no onna, which translates as Gossip Woman or the more elegant The Woman of Rumour, makes an interesting and logical companion piece to Mizoguchi's Gion bayashi of the previous year. Both stories are set in contemporary Kyoto geisha houses and presented exclusively from the viewpoint of the girls working within them, while a newcomer to this world and this particular house is as a main character of both films. The key difference here is that while Gion bayashi's Eiko chose to follow in her late mother's footsteps as a trainee geisha, Uwasa no onna's Yukiko, the daughter of widowed brothel owner Hatsuko, strongly disapproves of her mother's profession and arrives at the house reluctantly following her attempted suicide in Tokyo.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/7c/57/001c577c_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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On hand to offer help and support is young doctor Matoba, who works for the geisha guild and whom Hatsuko is attempting to set up in a of practise his own. Yukiko initially rejects the doctor's friendliness, but as the two spend more time with each other she starts to open up to him and a bond starts to develop. Hatsuko becomes increasingly frustrated by their developing relationship, and it soon becomes clear that her interest the younger doctor goes a lot further than that of a business partner.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/7d/57/001c577d_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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There are certain inevitabilities of narrative convention here, that Yukiko and Matoba's relationship will blossom into romance and that Yukiko's hostility to her mother's line of work will mellow, but former does not ultimately play out as expected and the latter develops logically as a result of, and in tandem with, the rediscovery by Yukiko of her own humanity. The catalyst for this is prostitute Usugumo, whose occupational illness turns out to be more serious than first realised and whose care Yukiko takes charge of, endearing her to the girls who had previously expressed contempt for her perceived aloofness.![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/76/57/001c5776_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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As with Gion bayashi, the behind-the-scenes workings of a geisha house are of particular interest, but once again Mizoguchi shows both positive and negative aspects of the profession. The upbeat exuberance of the scenes in which the girls entertain their customers are balanced by the fate that befalls Usugumo, whose determination to keep working despite her condition derives from a desperate financial need, her prime reason for becoming a geisha and the reason her sister begs to be allowed to take her place following her premature death (this also recalls Gion Bayashi, which began with 16-year-old Eiko asking to be taken on as a trainee geisha in place of her recently deceased mother).![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/77/57/001c5777_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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This dual view of the geisha's world was no doubt reflected the director's own conflicting experiences of the profession – although he apparently remained resentful that his sister was sold into prostitution at an early age, he was himself a frequent user of prostitutes in his adult years (as Tony Rayns points out in the accompanying address, this was in no way unusual for middle class Japanese men at this period in the country's history).![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/7a/57/001c577a_medium.jpeg)
Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
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The soul of the film lies increasingly in the troubled mother-daughter relationship between Hatsuko and Yukiko, which is defined from the start by Hatsuko's profession of choice, both in Yukiko's initial hostility to her new home and in the reasons that landed her there in the first place. In their responses to each other the two are travelling in opposite directions – as Yukiko begins to mellow to her mother and her lifestyle, Hatsuko becomes increasingly envious of her daughter's youth and her relationship with Matoba. There's a strong suggestion that she had been having a long-standing affair with the doctor until her daughter arrived on the scene, but her jealousy is further frustrated by the knowledge that it was she that introduced them to each other, asking Matoba to spend time with Yukiko in the hope of aiding her healing. It's her involvement with Matoba that earns Matoba the title moniker, highlighting a curious dual standard that accepts her as a brothel owner but disapproves of her relationship with a man half her age, an attitude that is brought to a head when she is publicly humiliated by a stage performance that openly mocks her desires.Slarek, DVD Outsider
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/7c/57/001c577c.jpeg)
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Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]
![Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954) [The Masters of Cinema Series #56/57]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/7b/57/001c577b.jpeg)
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EXTRA FEATURES
Chikamatsu monogatari
Tony Rayns on Chikamatsu monogatari (13:18)
Renowned expert on Asian cinema Tony Rayns provides some useful background to the production, including a detailed biography of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, on whose story the film is largely based. He also fills us in on Mizoguchi's apparent lack of enthusiasm for the project and speculates on the reasons, and clearly regards the film as one of the director's lesser works, a point on which we differ.
Also included are the original teaser (2:06) and the original trailer (3:51), neither of which are in sparkling shape, but then it's a small miracle they've survived at all. The teaser is of particular interest for its brief behind-the-scenes footage and its claim that the film is "the acme of cinematic perfection."
Uwasa no onna
Tony Rayns on Uwasa no onna (12:40)
Mr. Rayns discusses Mizoguchi's attitude to the project, which was again apparently unenthusiastic (fascinating and useful though Rayns contributions are, you's have to be careful what you quoted for the sleeve notes if you wanted to sell the DVD). He also profiles lead actress Kinuyo Tanaka, with whom Mizoguchi was apparently infatuated, and tells a most interesting story about how the two parted company.
Again we have the original trailer (3:51), which is in similar condition to the above.
All Thanks goes to original uploader.
No More Mirrors.