The Empress is dead, and Chinese Emperor Masayuki Mori mourns endlessly. Scullery maid Machiko Kyô is chosen by her relatives and trained to please the Emperor, but it is her frankness as much as her beauty which pleases him. When she is made his consort, however, her relatives call in favors for wealth and position, until the populace demand their deaths, and hers.

It's another of Kenji Mizoguchi's beautifully made and exquisite dramas, full of long, slow moving shots, and actors who move silently, but movingly. Mizoguchi had started as a performer of women's roles. When he began to direct in the early 1920s, he directed these pictures, because, as he later said, "When I was working for Nikkatsu, the company already had Murata Minoru making films featuring heroes, so for balance they made me do films featuring heroines. Also, I am very quarrelsome and so when I work there is always the possibility of a fight, but I can't very well slug an actress." He was another of those tough, artistic directors who feigned a low-brow attitude, like John Ford.

I thought there was much that was ambiguous about Miss Kyô's character here. Is she being honest, or frank? Are her actions in returning to her humble origins honest, or a miscalculated power play? Is my uncertainty because I am a cynical westerner, not the intended audience, or because that is how Mizoguchi intended me to think?

Regardless of how I react to the story raised to the level of fantastic legend of this movie, it certainly is a beautiful thing to look at. For the moment, that's enough.

THE PRINCESS YANG KWE FEI / (YÔKIHI). Viewed on Streaming. Costume design = ten (10) stars; cinematography = nine (9) stars; restoration/preservation = four (4) stars; set design = four (4) stars; score = two (2) stars. Director Kenji Mizoguchi's small-scale, sound-stage-bound production of a Pygmalion-like legend set in the court of the Emperor of China (circa eighth century) involving a just-off-the-farm girl turned kitchen maid who is promoted by overly ambitious clan politicians to become the Emperor's favorite concubine. This is the standard zero-to-hero plot line used in many Japanese films. (In stark contrast to the elongated English title picked by Western distributors, there is neither a princess nor an extant empress to be seen in the movie!) Political over reach eventually results in a "popular" revolt that murders the "princess" and almost over throws the Emperor. The uprising consists of about 40 extras (and this is supposed to be population-heavy China)! A mostly seasoned cast (including well-known character actress Haruko Sugimura) is allowed to deliver ho-hum/lack-luster performances across the board (although heavy-handed editing may have been a contributing factor). Leading actress Machiko Kyô is seriously miscast as the "princess." She is too old for the role. The real stars of this film are the costumes that look simply stunning in color and the small sets that initially appear rich and splendid (in color) but later seem rather drab (perhaps due to budgetary constraints?). Cinematography (narrow-screen format, color) and lighting are very good. Restoration failed to remove age-related noise artifacts especially during the initial third of the film. Score is uneven and a mixed bag using apparently indigenous instruments. It ranges from fairly pleasant multi-string lute solos to ensembles that sound like cat-strangulation orgies! Shooting in color does not compensate for an otherwise colorless photo play! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Sometimes its a good idea not to read up on a movie before watching it, it can set up an expectation (or lack of it) that interferes with viewing pleasure. In the newly released Masters of Cinema version the critic Tony Raines is highly dismissive in the introduction - calling it dramatically inert and making a few rather pompous and pedantic points about the translation. Donald Richie in his 'Hundred Years of Japanese Film' is similarly dismissive. It is certainly not Mizoguchi's best, it lacks the flair of Ugetsu and the character development of his more contemporary dramas, but I think this movie is far better than the dismissive comments suggest. Maybe its just that Japanese cinema of the period is so fabulously rich that even very good movies can be discounted.

The story is taken from an ancient Chinese legend - of the beautiful concubine of a great emperor, sacrificed for the sins of her family. No doubt the Chinese setting looks rather ludicrous to Chinese viewers (it was originally a co-production with HK based company, but they seem to have had no artistic input),but thats hardly new - even Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger was hated by most mandarin speakers I know. And its probably no worse that the Last Samurai or Memoirs of a Geisha appears to the Japanese.

It was Mizuguchi's first colour film - while some commentators have praised the beauty of the camera-work, I must admit I was left a big cold by it - not a patch on (for example) Ozu's first colour experiments. It may be that the blame is the digital colour transfer or just my poor quality screen, but I think its more than that - I get the strong impression the movie was shot on a very tight budget - some of the sets look very fake compared to most Mizoguchi' films I've seen. I don't think the film makers were totally aware of how colour can show up fakery in a way they could get away with using black and white. In fact, the whole movie has a slightly throw away feel, as if Mizoguchi didn't fully have his heart in it. There are lots of opportunities for the sort of big sweeping scene he specialised in, but which aren't taken up here - I would guess that he simply didn't have the time and budget for it.

But I don't mean to criticise this too much - while the script is occasionally clunky, it is usually very moving and beautifully acted. The characters are vivid and while its a little bit much to believe that a great Emperor could be quite such a sappy soul, Mori and Kyo do a reasonable job in making their characters believable - or as believable as possible when translating such an ancient story. Kyo as always is wonderfully watchable. Mori is slightly less successful - he doesn't quite show the steel that much have existed under the cultured exterior of a man who ran an empire.

So while this film is certainly not a masterpiece by Mizoguchi, or one of the best movies of the period, its certainly superior to most contemporary costume dramas and well worth having to while away a rainy Sunday afternoon.