Film Still

Street of Shame

Kenji Mizoguchi

Japan

1956

85 minutes

Black and White

1.33:1

Japanese

Synopsis

For his final film, Mizoguchi brought a lifetime of experience to bear on the heartbreaking tale of a brothel full of women whose dreams are constantly being shattered by the socioeconomic realities surrounding them. Set in Tokyo’s Red Light District (the literal translation of the Japanese title), Street of Shame was so cutting, and its popularity so great, that when an antiprostitution law was passed in Japan just a few months after the film’s release, some said it was a catalyst.

Cast

MickeyMachiko Kyo
YumekoAiko Mimasu
YasumiAyako Wakao
HanaeMichiyo Kogure
ShizukoYasuko Kawakami
TayaEitarô Shindô
EikohKenji Sugawara
PolicemanBontaro Miake
Mickey’s fatherToranosuke Ogawa

Credits

DirectorKenji Mizoguchi
ProducerMasaichi Nagata
ScreenplayMasashige Narusawa
Based partly on the novel “Women of Susaki” byYoshiko Shibaki
CinematographyKazuo Miagawa
EditingKanji Sugawara
MusicTashiro Mayuzumi
Art directionHiroshi Mizutani

From the Current

Press Notes: Mizoguchi Ascendant

Oct 26, 2008

The ongoing rediscovery of the multitude of masterworks that made up the career of Kenji Mizoguchi continues with the release of Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women. The set, writes Dennis Lim in the http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-secondlook19-2008oct19...

Eclipse Series 13:
Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women

by Michael Koresky Oct 20, 2008

Though he had been directing films since the silent era, collaborating with many different film studios in various genres, Kenji Mizoguchi didn’t become an international sensation until after the Second World War, benefiting, as did his compatriot Akira Kurosawa, from a new fascination with Japan’s...

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