Kinuyo Tanaka plays Sumako Matsui, considered the first great actress of the modern Japanese stage. Sô Yamamura plays Hôgetsu Shimamura, anxious to perform Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE, who discovers her and drills her her in the part, and left his wife and family to be with her.
Despite the name, it's the history of the drama movement in Japan through her death, and it is, as usual with a film by Kenji Mizoguchi, impeccable, even as it falls into all the standard tropes of this sort of movie. Its best scenes are those of Yamamura directing Miss Tanaka in a few lines from Ibsen, getting exactly the performance he wants from her, and in the wings while playing CARMEN, when she mocks the actor who is supposed to kill her onstage about his weak performance. There's little to argue here when I state she gives a great and varying performance, switching modes like lightning, but it is those very strengths that call attention to the artificiality of the movie.
Despite the name, it's the history of the drama movement in Japan through her death, and it is, as usual with a film by Kenji Mizoguchi, impeccable, even as it falls into all the standard tropes of this sort of movie. Its best scenes are those of Yamamura directing Miss Tanaka in a few lines from Ibsen, getting exactly the performance he wants from her, and in the wings while playing CARMEN, when she mocks the actor who is supposed to kill her onstage about his weak performance. There's little to argue here when I state she gives a great and varying performance, switching modes like lightning, but it is those very strengths that call attention to the artificiality of the movie.