1950. Keyhole It's like Kenji Mizoguchi looking through a keyhole at a Japanese family. Together with the maid who came to the house, the viewer penetrates into all the secret passages leading to family secrets. And for the sake of justice, not so many secrets. Marriage by force of parents is traditional, but times have changed. Now women have more rights and the attitude to the total superiority of men has changed. But when Ms. Yuki got married, things were different. Her husband, by inertia, does not see that time has changed. He is a domestic tyrant who is interested only in the state of his wife and her inheritance, which he can not even multiply.
Mizoguchi paints a very concise picture of family relations and equality of spouses. There will be no Bergmanian psychology and tension. Rather, Mizoguchi tries to smooth out all the sharp corners - the picture looks easy, despite its very complex theme. With a passion for BDSM paintings, Mizoguchi invites the viewer to watch a decent married woman find herself in a desperate situation. The keyhole effect affects the viewer simply watching domestic violence. Similarly, viewers nowadays watch the channel “Discovery” – a duel of predator and herbivorous, the final of which is known in advance.
Well, stylistically, the director of the film can be caught in excessive minimalism. It is not even in modest interiors, limited mainly to one house. The fact that the movie does not look like a “game audiovisual work”, there is a strong feeling that watching the play. Moreover, the play is based on the work of Ostrovsky, only slightly adapted to Japanese style. This is facilitated by the modest play of actors who do not particularly try to stand out, the limited location and the linearity of the plot.
Such a movie could hardly surprise or delight me. The merits of the tape seemed to me very modest. In addition, in 1950 came not the strongest “Chronicle of one love” Antonioni, completely negating all the advantages of the tape Mizoguchi. Moreover, the characters of both films seem cold and detached, not accepting the realities of modernity.
4 out of 10
