Kenji Mizoguchi

(Film Director, 1898-1956) Born in Tokyo. 1920, he joins the Nikkatsu Mukojima Studios. After assisting Tadashi Oguchi and Eizo Tanaka, he debuts as director with “The Resurrection of Love” in 1923. In the 1930’s he drifts between Shinko Kinema, Daiichi Eiga and Shochiku to establish his style of depicting oppressed women with a painstaking reality, in “Naniwa Elegy” (’36) and “Sisters of the Gion” (’36). After contracting with Daiei in 1952, “The Life of Oharu” (’52/Koi Production·Shintoho), “Ugetsu” (’53) and “Sansho the Bailiff” (’54) won him awards at the Venice International Film Festival for three consecutive years, making Mizoguchi’s name renowned to the world. His significant style of shooting one-scene-one-cut has also had an influence on French New Wave directors.