I saw two critically acclaimed masterpieces of world cinema recently: Bergman’s Virgin Spring and Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu. I can more or less understand why they make the critics go “ooooo” — they’re beautifully shot, slow-paced, and larded with BIG SPIRITUAL THEMES. Exploitation for the intelligencia, basically.
Another reason for the critical enthusiasm may be that, in a very SNAG way, they are both really, really enthusiastic about patriarchy — and bizarrely nostalgic for feudalism. Virgin Spring is set in medieval Scandinavia; it’s about a virgin who heads off to deliver candles to church. She’s raped and murdered by low-class brigands, who improbably stop in at her parents house, where the virgin’s mother uncovers their misdeed and the virgin’s father kills them, after which he feels guilty. Ugetsu is set in ancient Japan during a war. It follows two brothers; Genjuro, whowants to make a fortune by selling his pots, and Tobei, who wants to become a samurai. In pursuing their dreams they abandon their wives: Tobei’s is raped, and Genjuro’s is murdered.
Both of these movies are built around violence against women. And yet, neither is really about women. Instead, the violence directed at females is part of a story about men. In Virgin Spring, the murder and rape of the daughter is there to enable the father’s spiritual questioning — at the end of the movie he accuses God, and specifically wonders why God has allowed innocence to be murdered . His daughters virginity (as the title indicates) is very much at issue — as if the crime would be less heinous if the rapee had slept around. Furthermore, to expiate his sin of vengeance, the father promises to build a church, after which a spring miraculously wells up from the ground. The girl has been sacrificed to effect a reconciliation between father figures — the actual father and God, who come to a closer understanding over her broken body.
Ugetsu is similarly obsessed with a feudal past. It’s kind of fun to see a movie in which the ambitious capitalist dreamers are so thoroughly done in — Tobei and Genjuro would be the triumphant heroes in any mainstream Western movie. Still, if we chuck capitalism, do we really have to go back to feudalism? The suggestion that any personal ambition automatically leads to insanity seems maybe a little over done — I mean, who can blame these guys for not wanting to be ground-down peasants all their lives? Apparently Mizoguchi can; the punishment for abandoning their feudal lot is an abrogation of their fedual privileges; their wives are dishonored and killed. As I mentioned, Tobei’s wife is raped — and since she’s dishonored, that automatically makes her a whore, so she ends up in a house of prostitution. Genjuro’s wife is killed…but we get to hear her ghostly avatar babbling on about how happy she is that her husband has given up all his ambition and is now just working, working, working, with no expectation of reward or advancement. Oh yeah, and there’s one more women in the story — a noble lady who compliments Genjuro’s pots, throws herself at him, marries him…and then turns out to be an evil ghost spirit! Bad luck there, Genjuro. Talk about the trophy wife from hell.
In other words, the woman in these movies aren’t woman — they’re spiritual chits, pushed around the board to make the mens’ inner lives look more interesting. I can’t help but think that this focus on the tortured-soul-of-the-male-provider is why these movies get to be seen as So So Serious. It makes you understand why Regan and Goneril were so pissed off at dear old egocentric Dad and his simpering enabler, Cordelia.
Haven’t seen Virgin Spring, but I have seen the Wes Craven remake, so natch?
I don’t know that calling the guys in Ugetsu “ambitious” is totally accurate, or at least not to my memory–wasn’t the wanna-be soldier a bumbling fool for the most part? He struck me as more as being a victim more to his basic mental debilitation than anything else. I’ll see your mistreatment of women angle, but I’d also point out that I’d always heard of the movie’s greatness in relation to the cinematography, which is the main thing I enjoyed when watching it. And although I haven’t seen much of his pro-female work, he does have one of those Eclipse box sets coming out with four (five?) of his “plight of the Japanese woman” movies.
Hey Tucker. Thanks for checking in.
The brothers in Ugetsu both want to better themselves financially and/or socially. They are also portrayed as delusional and (in the wannabe samurai’s case) borderline insane — but I think it’s an and/plus thing (they are ambitious and therefore insane) rather than a but/or (they are insane, and therefore their ambition doesn’t count.)
The cinematography is lovely, but I looked at a few reviews, and (as you’d expect) people are excited about the content as well.
I doubt I’ll be watching another of his movies anytime soon….but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ugetsu was included in that box set. I could see someone claiming it was a “plight of the women” movie….
I definitely like “Last House on the Left” better than Virgin Spring. The way Craven deals with patriarchy and women is a lot more thoughtful and complicated, and a good bit more honest, than what Bergman does, I think. Craven is more straightforward about acknowledging the material’s exploitative qualities, for example; they’re certainly there in Bergman, but layered over with sanctimony.
I’ve never seen it, and have no interest in seeing it, but there was a remake of Last House on the Left called “Chaos” that’s mostly well known for featuring Waingro from Heat and a dust-up that got going between Roger Ebert and the filmmaker, who was some (or is some) professional wrestler. I saw a couple of clips, and it’s sort of exploitative gore, the kind of movie that gets called “torture porn.”
Ugetsu won’t be in the box set–it gets classed with his “historical” pieces.
I’m more a fan of watching Ozu then anything I’ve seen by Mizoguchi, but I think you and I might have a differing opinion when it comes to the long take sort-of-boring slice of life Japanese films.
The thing that most interested me about Virgin was there being some scene where Sydow lacerates himself with reeds? I worry that i’ll watch it and that won’t be as awesome as I imagine.
I'm curious to here your thoughts on some of "new-wave" director Shohei Imamura's films. I think – especially early in his career as a film-director – a lot of his films can be viewed as a reaction against Mizoguchi's view of women's plight and Ozu's view of domestic life. That's not the sole or even most-interesting reason to check out his films but it does warrant a recommendation given some of your critiques. (Disclaimer: I actually liked Ugetsu).
Anyway, some of Imamura's films that might be of interest in this connection include Pigs & Battleships, Intentions of Murder, Vengeance is Mine, Profound Desire of the Gods, this obscure interview/documentary called The History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess, and his remake of The Ballad of Narayama.
I'd also be curious to hear your thoughts on some of his later movies like The Eel, Dr. Akagi, and Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, which I think are more "man-friendly."
Cheers.
-David Alex
It seems your attacking the social dynamics that these historical pieces took place in rather than what I think the intentions were, and that is to tell pretty basic morality tales.
Obviously, people living in the times depicted did really place value in ideas you see as atavistic, but that’s just the dressing.
The viewers can recognize what the characters place value in and empathize, wether it be in a feudalist patriarchy or some kind of feminist/marxist wonderland.
Does the fact that the scenarios played out in systems you dislike make them less horrible?