The Life of Oharu

Set in seventeenth-century Japan during the Edo period, The Life of Oharu follows a woman of noble standing whose life unravels after she becomes involved with a man far below her social rank. When the relationship is discovered, she and her family are banished, and she begins a long decline through a series of humiliations, passing through the households of men who use her and descending into prostitution before turning to religious life and begging.

Kenji Mizoguchi directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Yoshikata Yoda, also serving as producer alongside Hideo Koi. It came in the middle of a notable run for Mizoguchi: it followed The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum and The 47 Ronin, and preceded Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, Chikamatsu Monogatari and Princess Yang Kwei-fei. Kinuyo Tanaka plays the title role, with Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirō Sugai, Hisako Yamane, Toshirō Mifune and Jūkichi Uno among the credited cast of twenty-one.

The film runs 136 minutes and was released in April 1952. It holds an 8 out of 10 rating on IMDb from around 8,400 votes and a 7.7 out of 10 on TMDB from about 205 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.9 out of 10 from 14 reviews, placing critical appraisal above the broader audience scores.