Oyu-Sama

[poliphilo]

This is the earliest in the bunch of Mizoguchi films I'm working through.  If you can swallow the premise of love at first sight between the dull young hero and the jowelly, giggly, middle-aged heroine, everything else follows like a dream. Mizoguchi himself thought it was a failure- and I suppose any film you can only enjoy by suspending your disbelief has to be classified that way- but there are some wonderful set-pieces- notably a death in childbirth framed by the going up and coming back down the track of a distant steam train.