Like with 'Zangiku monogatari', Mizoguchi has made a very beautiful film. The long tracking shots, deep focus editing, and vibrant colors are gorgeous. Yet the story in 'Yang Kwei fei", just like in Mizo's 'Zangiku monogatari' and 'The Crucified Lovers', is very typical and unexceptional. Be prepared to see ideal archetypes of perfectly virtous self-sacrificing women, stupid greedy and cruel men, and did I mention?...the cruelties of feudalism. I think such a simple story set during feudalism is a weakness in this film. It leaves a viewer commonly thinking: feudalism sucks (boy that's new), it's good it's over,...what's next? This is a perfectly valid critique. Mizoguchi's vastly better films are his realistic masterworks from 1036: 'Osaka Elegy' and 'Sisters of the Gion', as well as his late more retrained masterpieces 'Ugetsu', 'Sansho Dayu', and 'Life of Oharu'.

The Empress is dead, and Chinese Emperor Masayuki Mori mourns endlessly. Scullery maid Machiko Kyô is chosen by her relatives and trained to please the Emperor, but it is her frankness as much as her beauty which pleases him. When she is made his consort, however, her relatives call in favors for wealth and position, until the populace demand their deaths, and hers.

It's another of Kenji Mizoguchi's beautifully made and exquisite dramas, full of long, slow moving shots, and actors who move silently, but movingly. Mizoguchi had started as a performer of women's roles. When he began to direct in the early 1920s, he directed these pictures, because, as he later said, "When I was working for Nikkatsu, the company already had Murata Minoru making films featuring heroes, so for balance they made me do films featuring heroines. Also, I am very quarrelsome and so when I work there is always the possibility of a fight, but I can't very well slug an actress." He was another of those tough, artistic directors who feigned a low-brow attitude, like John Ford.

I thought there was much that was ambiguous about Miss Kyô's character here. Is she being honest, or frank? Are her actions in returning to her humble origins honest, or a miscalculated power play? Is my uncertainty because I am a cynical westerner, not the intended audience, or because that is how Mizoguchi intended me to think?

Regardless of how I react to the story raised to the level of fantastic legend of this movie, it certainly is a beautiful thing to look at. For the moment, that's enough.

THE PRINCESS YANG KWE FEI / (YÔKIHI). Viewed on Streaming. Costume design = ten (10) stars; cinematography = nine (9) stars; restoration/preservation = four (4) stars; set design = four (4) stars; score = two (2) stars. Director Kenji Mizoguchi's small-scale, sound-stage-bound production of a Pygmalion-like legend set in the court of the Emperor of China (circa eighth century) involving a just-off-the-farm girl turned kitchen maid who is promoted by overly ambitious clan politicians to become the Emperor's favorite concubine. This is the standard zero-to-hero plot line used in many Japanese films. (In stark contrast to the elongated English title picked by Western distributors, there is neither a princess nor an extant empress to be seen in the movie!) Political over reach eventually results in a "popular" revolt that murders the "princess" and almost over throws the Emperor. The uprising consists of about 40 extras (and this is supposed to be population-heavy China)! A mostly seasoned cast (including well-known character actress Haruko Sugimura) is allowed to deliver ho-hum/lack-luster performances across the board (although heavy-handed editing may have been a contributing factor). Leading actress Machiko Kyô is seriously miscast as the "princess." She is too old for the role. The real stars of this film are the costumes that look simply stunning in color and the small sets that initially appear rich and splendid (in color) but later seem rather drab (perhaps due to budgetary constraints?). Cinematography (narrow-screen format, color) and lighting are very good. Restoration failed to remove age-related noise artifacts especially during the initial third of the film. Score is uneven and a mixed bag using apparently indigenous instruments. It ranges from fairly pleasant multi-string lute solos to ensembles that sound like cat-strangulation orgies! Shooting in color does not compensate for an otherwise colorless photo play! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.