The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

Set in late nineteenth-century Tokyo, the film follows Kikunosuke Onoue, the adopted son of a celebrated kabuki actor and himself a performer in female roles. He comes to realise that the praise he receives rests on his father's name rather than his own ability, and that his fellow actors mock him behind his back. Otoku, a servant in the household, is the one person honest with him, and the two fall in love. When the family dismisses her and forbids him to see her, Kikunosuke leaves home to prove himself on stage without his father's reputation, and Otoku follows him.

Kenji Mizoguchi directed, working from a screenplay by Matsutarō Kawaguchi and Yoshikata Yoda, with Shintarô Shirai producing for Shochiku. Shōtarō Hanayagi and Kakuko Mori play the leads, supported by Kōkichi Takada, Kinnosuke Takamatsu, Gonjurô Kawarazaki and Benkei Shiganoya among a credited cast of twenty-two. The film runs 144 minutes and stands first in the chronological list of Mizoguchi's features here, ahead of The 47 Ronin and the later works of the 1950s.

Audience response has been consistently favourable, with a rating of 7.8 out of 10 on IMDb from around 4,800 votes and 7.8 out of 10 on TMDB from over 130 votes. That agreement across a large and a small sample suggests the film's reputation has held up long after its 1939 release.