I don’t know if the films were cut and I would still recommend the set.
They are all dramas set in 20th century Japan with women coping with their lack of economic and social power. Not on a level with Sansho but fine films.
I especially like Osaka Elegy, The culture is so tradition bound that the heroine simply doesn’t have any good options, happy endings aren’t possible.
I have heard something similar, that a few of the films were cut, although I couldn’t tell you which, although one of the customer reviews on Amazon may likely have that info handy.
For me, personally I don’t think that it is the best of Mioguchi’s work, although the films are interesting and do span a great amount of his career.
I liked Sisters of Gion the more than Osaka Elegy, although, to be honest, I would have to dig up my review to tell you why.
My favorite was “Women of the NIght”, if that was the one where the clinic people try to take in fallen women, but the women only run away to go back to the streets.
I think there is a cat fight in a burned out churchyard at the end…
I need to se it again, but it was the best of the set.
That being said, they weren’t as memorable as Life of Oharu or Ugetsu Monogatari.
I would recommend picking up some of the masters of cinema double disc sets before Fallen Women.
I especially like Osaka Elegy, The culture is so tradition bound that the heroine simply doesn’t have any good options, happy endings aren’t possible.
Completely agree with @Doinel – the ending of Osaka Elegy is classic. It’s also interesting for being one of the first (maybe the first) Japanese non-comedy film to use the Kansai dialect instead of the Tokyo Japanese. It’s slightly rougher Japanese and the dialogue in the script was very “realist” and blunt for the time and kind of underscores the crass materialism of some of the characters. If you aren’t a native speaker (I’m not) you can only really hear it when you compare it to other Japanese films at the time.
brady qw
I’m very interested in this Eclipse set, yet I heard somewhere that the films were cut. Is this true? If I enjoyed Sansho the Bailiff, are these comparable films or, as I’ve also heard, are these very different from Mizoguchi’s other work?