Kenji Mizoguchi

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter whose career began in the silent era and continued through 1956. His most celebrated films include *Sisters of the Gion*, *The Life of Oharu*, *Ugetsu*, and *Sansho the Bailiff*, works noted for their social realism and sustained attention to women constrained by society. His refined long takes and tracking shots helped bring Japanese cinema to international prominence, particularly through his successive Venice-awarded films of the early 1950s.