Osaka Elegy, beg.and end

[Sarah Frederick]

I'm sorry about the delay in thanking Mark, Jonathan, and Joanne for 
your thoughts, and for looking in such detail at your scripts and 
Laser Disc for me.  The parallel with the opening is important I 
think.

Just to be more open about why I was asking: I was partly curious 
just because so many students asked about it when I taught the film. 
I was also trying to read the ending more effectively and I have to 
think about it some more now that I know what that object is.  The 
final close up on her face is rather ambiguous to be sure.  Because I 
research women's magazines in that general era I was interested in 
the earlier scene where Ayako reads a woman's magazine during her job 
as a telephone operator, and sees the headline "Kane yue ni daraku 
shita onna" (~Woman corrupted because of money).  I was trying to 
think about her trajectory, which begins and is foretold there.  The 
ending is certainly elegiac (thus the title!) but also perhaps 
hopeful, as if she's going somewhere as she crosses the bridge.  The 
trash in the water seemed key to reading that. But I am relieved that 
she is not throwing away men's name cards or something so pat.

Thank you again.

Sarah

>I referred to my Criterion laserdisc of Osaka Elegy in an effort to resolve
>this question of the four slightly out-of-focus shots of the opening credits
>and the one similar shot at the very end.  It is evident from my copy that
>what is seen in these shots is the shiny refuse floating in the water
>beneath the bridge as Ayako throws away the empty cigarette pack.  (Let us
>recall that we had just seen her defiant, private pleasure in smoking alone
>only minutes earlier.  She had impatiently thrown a half-smoked cigarette
>away in that scene, and begun to apply lipstick and makeup in earnest as her
>brother and sister watched from the dinner table in the next room -- her
>gesture, then, could be seen as a sort of 'mise en abyme' and reminder of
>what defines her very position with respect to her family, before she joins
>them and their father, in the scene of their shunning her.)  There are two
>shots of these glistening objects in the water beneath the bridge (they seem
>to include some sort of metal or tin perhaps), first a 4" shot at 70'04",
>with a cut to a low-angle m.c.u. of Ayako, followed by a second shot of this
>trash on the water at 70'13" (a 7 " shot).  It is definitely not a pavement
>(even a cobblestone one) nor is it simply the reflection of lights in the
>water.  This is also apparent as there is a shot of neon lights reflected in
>the calm water just before this, beginning at 69'37" (an 8" shot), with the
>camera panning slightly upwards to more fully take in the lights; that is,
>just before the long-shot showing Ayako on the bridge.
>
>So beyond the formal play of light in the opening credits, I take these
>opening shots to be a sort of metaphoric moral comment and announcement or
>anticipation of the downward trend of the film, and of Ayako's position at
>the end.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Mark
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Sarah and Jonathan,
>
>Sarah's right on the money with the cigarette package. I went back to the
>script (_Yoda Yoshikata shinario shu (2)_, Eijinsha 1984 ISBN4-87100-109-1,
>p. 5-62) and here's the scene in a rough translation:
>
>"On the bridge, same night
>Neon lights in the distance. Passersby. Ayako leans on the railing. She's
>taken out her cigarettes, but [the package] is empty. She throws it away. It
>floats (lightly) on the dark surface of the water."
>
>(the scene then continues with the doctor passing by and their dialogue, I
>think pretty much as in the film--I didn't do a direct comparison but the
>dialogue sounds right. None of the scenes are numbered, but this is the
>final scene.)
>
>  Here's the relevant part as written:
>
>????????????????????????????????????
>(p.61)
>
>
>hope this helps (hope too that maybe a DVD subtitled copy might be available
>some day in the US, but maybe the original print is also pretty "muddy."
>
>This reminds me of something I get asked alot in class: is it clear to
>anyone what exactly is the background of the opening credits (after the
>initial illustrated title card)? The closest I can guess is that it's the
>flickering of neon lights reflected on a wet pavement. Could be reflections
>on water, but I don't think so. Yoda's script only has the opening scene
>title (roughly): "Osaka. The glistening neon lights of the Dotonbori
>district at night"--which I take to be the opening shot.
>
>Joanne
>>
>>  I wonder if Joanne could help us by telling us what the screenplay does,
>in
>>  fact, mention--this only if it is readily accessible to her. . . .
>Jonathan
>
>>>  Joanne,
>>>
>>>  It looks like a flatter piece of paper but it could be a cigarette
>>>  package.
>  Sarah
>>>
>>>>  I've never thought about this, but could it be her cigarette? I didn't
>check
>>>>  my copy but it looks that way in the script. . . .
>>>>  Joanne
>
>>>>>  From: Sarah Frederick <sfred at bu.edu>
>>>>>  Subject: Osaka Elegy
>  . . .  Does anyone know with any certainty what it is
>>>>>  that Ayako, the main character of Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy, throws into
>the
>>>>>  water at the end of the film? Or is this a matter of debate?  My print
>is
>>>>>  rather fuzzy.
>>