Poetic realism from Japan: Kenji Mizoguchi

The Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956) is one of the most influential directors in film history. In addition to his poetic landscapes and his sophisticated plan sequences, it is the portraits of women - wives, courtesans and geishas - that are the main leitmotifs of Mizoguchi's work. Mizoguchi's social dramas describe the ruthless harshness of Japanese women's existence across the eras. We are exclusively showing seven of his works, freshly restored and subtitled.