An ageing prostitute, Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), walks slowly through the back streets of her patch, she's tired and cold and bemoans the lack of business, she gathers around a fire with her colleagues for some warmth and some chat. One of her colleagues asks her about her past as a courtesan, but emotionally scarred, Oharu is unable to discuss it and goes on her way. She enters a local temple, where there are many statues of Buddha's disciples, these faces bring back memories of her turbulent life, one in particular triggers flashbacks of better times….

Once as a courtesan Oharu had enjoyed the splendour of fine things with her parents. One day Oharu is tricked into a meeting with a nobleman by his servant, Katsunosuke(Toshiro Mifune), once alone he comes clean and pledges his love for her, at first she spurns him because of their different social status, but then she pledges her undying love to him, but their tryst is stopped in its tracks by a court official who catches them together. Oharu and her family are banished into exile, Katsunosuke fares much worse and is beheaded for his crime. Now broke and desolate, her father threatens to sell her to make ends meet, however an envoy from Lord Harutaka Matsudaira spots her and offers her the opportunity of becoming the Lord's concubine, as his present wife is sickly and unable to bear him a child. She finally agrees and dutifully bears him the son and heir he requested. Contrivances and petty jealousies then conspire to see her thrown out of her new home right after the birth, this however is just the beginning of her tortuous labyrinthine passage through life….

Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1952 Venice Film festival, The Life of Oharu is an adaptation of Saikaku Ihara's novel "Koshuku Ichidai Onna that follows familiar territory for the great Mizoguchi, who is perhaps best known for his tales of devastating loss and injustice, in particular when they are from the woman's point of view. Oharu is truly, an epic and compelling chronicle of a journey of brief highs and truly shocking lows for the main protagonist, Mizoguchi's film is a powerful critique of the Feudal class structure and how it unjustly destroyed many lives of ordinary people. Despite its Feudal setting it still feels very relevant and contemporary , its themes being timeless. The film is awash with elegance and is beautifully filmed by Yoshimi Hirano and Yoshimi Kono with all the flowing movement you might expect from the directors work, it gives life and symmetry to the wonderful period sets. The acting is also superb in its simplicity, some of their merest movements providing great power to the final product. Mizoguchi constantly plays with the viewers emotions without ever becoming preachy, just when you think Oharu has turned a corner, we are devastated by another unflinching twist of fate, its this pattern which gives the film an overall downbeat feeling, that shows Mizoguchi's mastery of the medium.

Mizoguchi's empathy for female characters is legendary. The Life of Oharu is one outstanding example. One woman's journey from member of the imperial court to elderly streetwalker is narrated in exquisite, shimmering, painful style. Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka) is seduced by a man below her station. Her crime is to love the man back unreservedly. That action becomes the catalyst for a series of degradations punctuated by false dawns, as Oharu's life spirals to rock bottom. And as bleak and depressing as that sounds, Mizoguchi's storytelling, combined with Tanaka's dignified portrayal, make this film cathartic, a tragedy with a small, life-affirming message at its heart. It is a cautionary tale to the follies of social mores, and the burden that women through the ages have to endure. More than that, it is a tale of one woman's dignity through the most humiliating of circumstances. Stunning.