FW: Mizoguchi film

[Dudley Andrew]

*******
The Film Studies Center and the Smart Museum of Art, University of 
Chicago
present

The Water Magician
Kenji Mizoguchi, 1933
(102 minutes, silent with English subtitles)
Friday, May 14
8 pm
Film Studies Center, 5811 Ellis, Room 307
Free admission

One of the few Japanese silent films to survive and one of the best 
known early works by cinema master Kenji Mizoguchi, "The Water 
Magician" was believed lost until 1958, when it was reconstructed from 
separate fragments. The screening will feature a rare, 35mm restored 
print from the National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, 
Tokyo. Traditionally narrated live by a performer (benshi), the film 
will be accompanied by live music performed by Chicago-based 
improvisers Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jason Roebke and Frank Rosaly. Tom 
Gunning, Professor of Art History and the Committee on Cinema and Media 
Studies, University of Chicago, will introduce the screening.

Born in Tokyo in 1898, Mizoguchi made films that were acclaimed by the 
public and critics, but that were regarded as "dangerous" for their 
progressive social and political vision. At a time when Japanese cinema 
struggled to establish itself as a new form of art, Mizoguchi's films 
evidenced stunning formal elaboration. His films, beginning with early 
works like "The Water Magician," conveyed themes drawn from Japanese 
history and everyday life and presented a strong feminist viewpoint.

Like most of his films, "The Water Magician" features a heroine; in 
this case she is a performer-a water magician-known in the Hokuriku 
District for her skill and beauty in making patterns in the water with 
a paddle. Irie Takako, one of the biggest stars of the day, plays the 
protagonist role. She falls for a man (played by another top star, 
Okada Tokihiko), who is timid and exudes boyish charm-a typical 
"nimaime" male type in Japanese film. As a "nimaime," his lack of inner 
resolve makes him ultimately unable to make the women he loves happy, 
leading to despair.

The screening is presented in conjunction with the Smart Museum of 
Art's exhibition "Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and Deco" 
on view at the museum through June 20. Included in the exhibition is a 
painted screen, accompanying under-drawing, and porcelain doll 
featuring the star of "The Water Magician," Irie Takako.

The exhibition features over sixty scroll paintings, folding screens, 
woodblock prints, textiles, and other works of decorative art represent 
the broad spectrum of Taisho culture, a period of transition in 
Japanese history when Western Jazz Age mores jostled with traditional 
Japanese values of tranquility and harmony. The exhibition has a 
special focus on objects associated with women, whose fashions, 
behavior, and household roles exemplify the simultaneous clash and 
embrace of modernity and tradition in Japan in the 1920s and 30s. For 
information about the exhibition and museum information, visit 
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu.

This screening is possible through the partial support of the Center 
for East Asian Studies, University of Chicago.


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