Where:
Harvard Film Archive
24 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Admission:
$9
Categories:
Film, University
Event website:
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2014aprjun/mizoguchi.html#miyamoto
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. With Chojuro Kawarasaki, Kinuyo Tanaka, Kigoro Ikushima
Japan 1944, 16mm, b/w, 55 min. Japanese with English subtitles
For his follow-up to The 47 Ronin Mizoguchi offered another adaptation of Japanese military legend that subtly, and stylishly, avoided the bellicose patriotism encouraged by government-pressured film studios. While centered around the eponymous swordsman, ronin and philosopher of war, Miyamoto Musashi carefully limits and contains its laconic action sequences, especially the climatic duels, to instead emphasize Musashi’s temperate side—revealed though his patient teaching of a vengeful young disciple, and his intimate rapport with the lush Japanese country side and forests. Among the few Mizoguchi’s films in which women appear only in minor, secondary roles Miyamoto Musashi is among the director’s most rarely screened works.