Osaka Elegy
About Osaka Elegy
Ayako Murai, a telephone operator at Asai's drug company, needs 300 yen because her father Junzo embezzled that sum. Her boyfriend Susumu will not help. She becomes Asai's mistress, quits, and moves into an apartment he pays for. At a bunraku performance his wife Sumiko catches them. Asai's associate Fujino claims Ayako is his date. Her sister Sachiko then asks for 200 yen for their brother Hiroshi's tuition. Ayako takes it from Fujino and drops him. She tells Susumu the truth and asks him to marry her. Fujino calls the police when she will not return the money. At the station she hears Susumu say he never meant to marry her. She is released to her father. Hiroshi calls her a delinquent and wants her thrown out. Sachiko is ashamed to go to school because the story is in the papers. Ayako leaves. She asks Dr. Yoko, Asai's physician, if there is a cure for female delinquency. He says no. She walks on alone.
Cast & crew
More about Osaka Elegy
Kenji Mizoguchi directed from his own story. Yoshikata Yoda wrote the screenplay. Masaichi Nagata produced it at Daiichi Eiga. Minoru Miki photographed it. It opened on 28 May 1936 and runs 71 minutes. Isuzu Yamada plays Ayako. The picture is paired with Sisters of the Gion, shot with much of the same cast and crew. The Japanese title is Naniwa Erejī (浪華悲歌).
Themes
Making
Mizoguchi and Yoda set the transactions in yen: 300 to clear the father, 200 for the brother, an apartment Asai rents, and a police report when Fujino is insulted.
Look
Minoru Miki photographed the drug-company office, the bunraku outing, and the apartment Sumiko invades.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The first sum is 300 yen, for the father's employer. The second is 200 yen, for Hiroshi's school fees.
- Ayako tells Susumu she works in a beauty salon. She does not.
- Sumiko, Asai's wife, reminds him that he has his job because he married into her family.
- Takashi Shimura and Eitarō Shindō are in the cast.
- Shochiku is listed among later distributors. Daiichi Eiga made the film.
Scenes
- At the bunraku, Sumiko confronts Asai and Fujino pretends Ayako came with him.
- Ayako hears Susumu tell the police he never intended to marry her.
- She asks a doctor if female delinquency can be cured, and he says no.
Also available
- Internet Archive (osaka-elegy)
- Wikimedia Commons (Osaka Elegy (1936) by Kenji Mizoguchi.webm)
