Directed by:
Kenji MizoguchiCinematography:
Kazuo MiyagawaComposer:
Fumio HayasakaCast:
長谷川一夫, Kyōko Kagawa, Haruo Tanaka, Chieko Naniwa, Tatsuya Ishiguro, Eitarô Ozawa, 進藤英太郎, 伊達三郎, 菅井一郎, Yôko MinamidaVOD (2)
Plots(1)
One of a string of late-career masterworks made by Kenji Mizoguchi in the early 1950s, A Story from Chikamatsu (a.k.a. The Crucified Lovers) is an exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. Based on a classic of eighteenth-century Japanese drama, the film traces the injustices that befall a Kyoto scroll maker’s wife and his apprentice after each is unfairly accused of wrongdoing. Bound by fate in an illicit, star-crossed romance, they go on the run in search of refuge from the punishment prescribed them: death. Shot in gorgeous, painterly style by master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, this subtly sensuous indictment of societal oppression was heralded by Akira Kurosawa as a “great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi.” (Criterion)
(more)Cast
長谷川一夫
Japan
Best movies:
Crossways (1928)
The Crucified Lovers (1954)
Gate of Hell (1953)
Kyōko Kagawa
Japan
Best movies:
High and Low (1963)
Red Beard (1965)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Haruo Tanaka
Japan
Best movies:
Living (1952)
Early Spring (1956)
Samurai III: Duel on Ganryu Island (1956)
Chieko Naniwa
Japan
Best movies:
Equinox Flower (1958)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Tatsuya Ishiguro
Japan
Best movies:
Revenge (1963)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (1964)
Eitarô Ozawa
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Zatoichi Challenged (1967)
Steel Edge of Revenge (1969) - narrator
進藤英太郎
Japan
Best movies:
Revenge (1964)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Drunken Angel (1948)
伊達三郎
Japan
Best movies:
Revenge (1963)
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (1964)
Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (1965)
菅井一郎
Japan
Best movies:
Early Summer (1951)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
The Crucified Lovers (1954)
Yôko Minamida
Japan
Best movies:
The Crucified Lovers (1954)
The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era (1957)
Pigs and Battleships (1961)