No, The Story of Late Chrysanthemums is not a bad movie, not at all. In fact, it is quite good. However, it is hardly perfect. This is an Alcestis-like story about a wife, Otoku (Kakuko Mori),who sacrifices herself for the sake of her husband. The man is a young actor, Kikunosuke (Shotaro Hanayagi),who is living in the shadow of his famous father. The name earns him respect and praise, but only when he is present. When his back is turned, nobody hides the fact that they think he's terrible, and he knows it. Otoku, the wetnurse of his brother, is the first to give him honest criticism. The two fall in love and attempt to marry, but Kikunosuke's father and the rest of his family won't allow him, a man of noble birth, to retain the name if he should go through with it. He does it anyway, and spends many long years suffering as a nobody. Meanwhile, Otoku works at keeping things going; she even begs acting troupes to give her husband a job. Kikunosuke doesn't appreciate her enough, but, then again, she is selfless to a fault. She becomes downright annoying as the picture progresses: always whining, and, after every major bit of dialogue, she has a coughing fit. Let me ask those who overpraise this movie: did anyone not see the ending coming from the first ten minutes? Mizoguchi made many films that were similar in theme, but not nearly as irksome, and his actors were nearly always better. Still, the man's cinema is evolving rapidly, and his direction is downright beautiful. The cinematography flows like poetry. I like it more than I let on above, but I really do want to urge my fellow internet critics to hold the same standards to Kenji Mizoguchi that you would to any other director. 8/10.

I wish I spoke fluent Japanese--then I am sure I could have enjoyed the movie so much more. That's because this movie had horrible subtitles and often sentences or more were simply left untranslated or 50 words in Japanese were distilled down to only 3 or 4 words. In essence, the translators were very lazy and did a terrible job. Some might not mind this, but since I am a very avid fan of Japanese films it seriously detracted from the experience. This does NOT mean it is unwatchable or you should avoid it. In fact, if anyone knows of a better version available to Western audiences, let me know.

The plot itself seems very familiar and is reminiscent of some other films, as its main ideas are respect for your elders and unrequited love. The main character is madly in love with his step-brother's nursemaid and the family strongly opposes it. I don't really think I need to divulge more but felt that the actors did a fine job and the story itself was interesting.

UPDATE: There is a new DVD version from Criterion and I assume it's much better than the DVD I saw. Criterion always seems to do good jobs with subtitles on their film releases.

From director Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff),this Japanese film was featured in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, obviously I had not read anything about prior to watching it, but that didn't matter, I was watching whatever. Basically, set in Tokyo in 1888, Kikunosuke Onoue (Shôtarô Hanayagi) is the adoptive son of an important famous Kabuki actor, he is the heir to his father, and that he finds out is the only reason he is praised as an actor himself. Behind his back the acting troupe complain about how bad he is, and the only person to be honest and talk to him about it is wet-nurse Otoku (Kakuko Mori),but she the family fire her. Kikunosuke is forbidden from seeing her because the family want to avoid the gossip that would be caused about one of them having a relationship with a servant. He has fallen in love with Otoku however, so he leaves home to be with her and try to find a better living as an actor outside of Tokyo, and also to try and gain respect back from his family. Also starring Gonjurô Kawarazaki as Kikugoro Onoue V, Kôkichi Takada as Fukusuke Nakamura, Ryôtarô Kawanami as Eiju Dayu, Nobuko Fushimi as Onaka, geisha, Benkei Shiganoya as Genshun Amma, Yôko Umemura as Osata, Kikugoro's wife, Tamitaro Onoue as Tamizo Onoue, Kisho Hanayagi as Tamisaburo Onoue and Tokusaburo Arashi as Shikan Nakamura. The acting is fine, the costumes and sets are good, and the long takes are interesting most of the time, I will be honest and say that some of the story was a little difficult to follow and keep up with, but I can see that this does represent well the insight into the roles of women in Japanese society, overall I agree it is a worthwhile period melodrama. Very good!