Series & Events
The Downfall of Osen
Live Event! Special ticket price $15
SIFF vouchers are not a valid form of payment for this special event
Click here to listen to Marta Zekan (KING FM's The Arts Channel) interview the members of the Aono Jikken Ensemble.
The Downfall of Osen (Orizuru Osen) is one of the very few surviving silent films by revered Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff). A pivotal early work, the film has been cited as the most dramatic example of Mizoguchi’s central theme of “fallen” women and their struggles in a world that would degrade and enslave them. Osen features an incandescent performance by Isuzu Yamada (Throne of Blood) as the abused mistress in a den of thieves who seeks redemption through her love for Sokichi, a poor hapless youth with dreams of becoming a doctor. Mizoguchi’s exquisite attention to detail combines with surprisingly experimental camera technique and a complex narrative structure to create a hauntingly beautiful tale of love and betrayal that spans time and memory.
Osen is presented with a new live music/sound score featuring an English language version of the almost forgotten art of the benshi (Japanese silent film narrator) by Seattle’s own Aono Jikken Ensemble in their first local performance after two years of touring internationally with Guy Maddin’s live cinematic spectacle Brand Upon The Brain!
Cast & Crew
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
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