Even though one of the women
(Tanaka Kinuyo) in Mizoguchi Kenji's "Utamaro o meguru gonin no onna"
("Five Women Around Utamaro", 1946, 3/5 stars) takes extreme action and
the woodblock artists maro Kitagawa (1753-1806) is passionate about his work
(which is celebrating the beauty of women, most of whom are prostitutes in the
Yoshiwara pleasure district of the capital, Edo {later renamed Tokyo]) and,
early on, an artist of the hypertraditional Kano Art School (Bandô Kôtarô)
challenges Utamaro (Bandô Minosuke) to a duel, the movie (and the killer
deranged by jealousy) still have pretty flat affect. It seems that I started
with Mizoguchi's masterpieces "Ugetsu" and "Sanchô, the
Bailiff." My subsequent encounters with Mizoguchi films have been
disappointments or worse ("Chikamatsu monogatari," "The Life of
Oharu," and, especially, the 1941 "47 Ronin").
The portrayal of
living to make art surely has autobiographical resonances, and the movie also
has the historical interest of being a piece of advocacy for a creative
individual defying tradition that was acceptable (or more) to the US Occupation
(as in Kurosawa's rebels in “No Regret for Our Youth”). Sexual passion is
represented as a curse, but Utamaro's sublimation into art and will to make art
his own way are lauded (not just implicitly). For me, the beginning (a long
tracking shot of a procession) and the end (the piling up of Utamaro's art
after 50 days of having his hands bound in punishment for having "offended
the shogunate") are the best parts, though I'm sure that others must dote
on the young women fishing (one of whom catches Utamaro's eye).
