A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)

 Kenji Mizoguchi's "A Story from Chikamatsu"

There's nothing quite like late-period Mizoguchi films. "The Life of Oharu," "Ugetsu," and "Sansho the Bailiff," all released between 1952 and 1954, are considered to the be pinnacle of Mizoguchi's filmography. They are also considered some of the greatest films Japanese cinema has to offer in any time period. However, there is one particular film that is often overlooked, released in the same time period: 1954's "A Story from Chikamatsu." 

The film revolves around two lovers forced together through excruciating circumstances. During the Edo-period of Japan, Osan, the wife of a wealthy grand-scroll maker, goes to his employee, Mohei, to ask for money to help her indebted cousin. After a series of misunderstandings and accusations, Osan and Mohei are forced to flee after being branded as adulterers. If caught, the punishment for adulterers is crucifixion. They spent the film attempting to evade their capture. Their extreme and perilous circumstances pushes them together, creating a romance. After being caught, they are sent to die.

Although the story is based on a Monzaemon Chikamastu play from 1715, it bears all the themes of a typical Mizoguchi film. The landscape Mizoguchi typically employs is that of an oppressive society. One that beats down and subjugates people, particularly women. The society in the film is structured through economics, much like today's society. In this economic landscape, every character is either indebted to others or holds capital. Those that hold capital have a means of control over those who don't. The more money you have, the more others are indebted to you. This is especially true for women, who cannot hold capital. Which means they are constantly subjugated and treated as commodities. 

This oppressive landscape fueled by economics only makes its participants paranoid, corruptible, and   petty. Characters are far more willing to bend to the will of oppression for the sake of saving their own neck. This is precisely why Osan and Mohei cannot survive. What's even more unnerving about this fallout is that Osan and Mohei's original sin was only fabricated through misunderstanding. Osan and Mohei were never actually intimate or romantic with each other in any way. However, the perceived viewpoint by others is what damned them. This misperception is fueled by the paranoia of living in a police state. 

The notion that one perceived misstep by any individual would cause enormous fallout makes every small action that much more consequential. It also points to how unstable this society is. Any small action can trigger innumerable consequences, even if that action is misperceived. The point of such a tightrope tenuity within this structure creates an inevitable doom for any one person. As Harvard film scholar posits in his essay for Criterion on the film, "there is...an almost film-noir logic of simultaneously cruel and absurd fatalism at work...that gives calamitous weight to even the smallest misstep." 

Despite being completely innocent of their crime, Osan and Mohei are driven to desperate measures by these larger forces at play. They are even driven further into each other's arms, realizing the exact accusation that damned them to begin with. They even go as far to be together in spite of the consequences. They have innumerable opportunities to separate to dispel the rumors and escape punishment. And yet, they choose to remain together knowing full well the resulting tragic fate. This notion reminds me a bit of Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 anti-Nazi film "Day of Wrath," which posits that one must embrace the illicit behavior that oppressive forces condemn. However, in "A Story from Chikamatsu," that behavior - although considered adulterous - is two human beings loving one another. 

The final moments of the film are Osan and Mohei being marched to their demise. However, they continue to hold hands and smile. The final images are stark: two lovers and being executed for the crime of love. Mizoguchi's visual renderings create an antithesis that demonstrates the cruel fallacy of such a society. 

Mizoguchi manages to create yet another masterwork with "A Story from Chikamatsu." Along with the rest of his filmography, his visual style aids in his quest to criticize the current structures of cruelty and oppression. One of his greatest visual elements is his interest in keeping the camera at a distance from his subjects. Mizoguchi does not typically employ close-ups, and favors medium and wide shots - especially long, tracking shots. This rejection of intimacy in favor of grand-scale aids in pointing out the absurdity of larger-form structures. 

This visual style forces the viewer to contemplate how society itself - the multitude - affects the individual. Our individual passions and human emotions are stamped out by large-scale authority. In a Mizoguchi film, this is especially true for women. The women of a typical society, as Mizoguchi posits, are scrutinized unjustly, treated as accessories, and punished more punitively for perceived impurity. 

"A Story from Chikamatsu" is often not as fully recognized as Mizoguchi's other works from the same period. However, I would argue that it is just as creatively important. Even Mizoguchi's younger contemporary, Akira Kurosawa, called the film "a great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi."