Mizoguchi Kenji
‘One scene in one shot’
His visual style
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage)
• LONG-TAKE
* Take = a single continuous recording
• Shot - Scene - Sequence
*shot = the shortest unit of film which is shown
without interruption, that is, editing; *scene = a
shot or a series of shots that comprise a single,
complete event or action; *sequence = a series of
scenes which show related events, settings or
stories
• ‘One-scene-in-one-shot’; An entire scene is shown
in one shot
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage)
• Why does Mizoguchi rely on long-take or insist
one scene in one shot?
*Average Shot Length (ASL) = a cinemetrical measures;
5.9 second per shot in D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance and 2.5
seconds in American films made in 2007)
• 22 seconds in Osaka Elegy, 33 seconds in Gion, 57
seconds in Chrysanthemum, 92, seconds in The 47
Ronin, 29 seconds in Ugetsu
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage)
‘… the most precise and specific expression for
intense psychological moments.’
Mizoguchi Kenji
• Long-take is an effective way to create
psychological tension
• Though demanding for performers and cameramen
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Expansive screen space
• Continuous space created by
fluid pan and traveling shots
(Oharu)
• Skillful uses of on- and offscreen space
• Off-screen space further
indicated by repeated sound
effects (e.g. Chrysanthemums)
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• One of the great mise-en-scene directors along with
Murnau, Ophüls, and Wells
• Mise-en-scène = ‘staging’ (‘to put it in the scene’)
• It includes all the elements placed before the
camera or within a frame - actors, their
performance, sets, props, make-ups, costumes, etc.
• It also includes the way in which those elements are
shown - visual arrangement and composition lighting, camera angle, camera movement, shot size,
lens choice, etc.
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Chiaro-scuro lighting - strong contrast between
light and shade
(Rembrandt lighting - Mizoguchi learned
western paintings when young.)
• Atmospheric, moody and powerful images
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Rembrandt Lighting
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Mizoguchi’s chiaro-scuro cinematography
(e.g. Sansho the Bailiff)
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style
(mise-en-scène)
• Long-shot (a camera view of a character or object
from a distance)
(or no close-ups)
• Related to long-take; the longer a take is, the more
information needs to fill it, so that the viewer can
spend more time seeing and contemplating on it.
Long shot provides more information.
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• The scene in Ugetsu
where the heroine is
dying in agony while
the soldiers on the run
squabble for pathetic
rice balls for which
they killed her.
• A tragedy and human
waste is staged in a
long shot with
multiple actions.
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• REALISTIC and
SYMBOLIC representation
• Visual REALISM
Construction of sets,
designing costumes
finding locations based
on meticulous historical
research
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Sansho the Bailiff
• The opening shot shows
travelers walking across a
river bed.
• Its symbolic visual meaning
retroactively becomes
apparent as the film
progresses.
• Our life is a only journey-inprogress from eternity to
another eternity.
Realistic and Symbolic Representation
• Symbolic meaning of water
• Passage from one life to another
• Passage separating this world from the other
world
Realistic and Symbolic Representation
• The lake Biwa separate a village from a large
town
• The lake Biwa also separates this world from
the other
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Frequent uses of
sharply angled shot
• Mizoguchi’s aesthetic
choice
• Composition inspired
by traditional prints
and scroll paintings
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• POV from high in the
air and looking down on
a scene
• The beginning of
Legend of the Taira
Clan (Shin Heike
Monogatari, 1955)
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• High-angle composition inspired by
traditional Japanese scroll paintings
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Formal characteristics of
composition and
movement
DIAGONAL
Composition and movement
• Mizoguchi’s aesthetic
sensibility as a painter
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Diagonal compositions constructed from the
lines of floor, ceiling, beam, and tatami are
frequently seen in Mizoguchi’s films.
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Painterly cinematography - composition and
subdued colour scheme reminding of the ink
painting
Mizoguchi’s Visual Style
• LONG TAKE, LONG
SHOT, OFF-SCREEN
SPACE, SOUND
EFFECT, DIAGONAL
COMPOSITION AND
MOVEMENT articulate
emotions, intensify drama,
clarify meanings, provide
aesthetic and formal
pleasure.
• The Life of Oharu