JAPANESE MASTERS COLLECTION

This box set brings together four films from the Japanese filmmaking geniuses Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, two of the Twentieth Century’s greatest directors. Internationally acclaimed by such luminaries as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and Andrei Tarkovsky, Ozu and Mizoguchi’s extraordinary films are frequently to be found on the top 10 best film lists of critics and filmmakers. THE END OF SUMMER (1961) - YASUJIRO OZU - Ozu’s penultimate film is an intimate and bittersweet portrayal of Japanese family life, exploring the breakdown of traditional values in the face of rapid post-war progress. The passing of the old order and the inevitability of change finds perfect expression in Ozu’s pared down visual style, compassion and humour. FLOATING WEEDS (1959) - YASUJIRO OZU - A fine example of Ozu’s exquisitely restrained and lyrical melodramas, this stirring visual poem depicts the joy and pain of everyday life. An aging actor returns with his troupe to a provincial town where he is reunited with his former lover and his illegitimate son, provoking the bitter jealousy of his current mistress. THE LIFE OF O-HARU (1996) - KENJI MIZOGUCHI - Set in feudal Japan, Mizoguchi’s masterpiece stars Kinuyo Tanaka in the tragic tale of a young noblewoman’s fall from grace, in the wake of a forbidden affair with a commoner (Toshiro Mifune). Winner of the Silver Lion at the 1952 Venice Film Festival, the film firmly established Mizoguchi as one of cinema’s greatest directors of women. THE LADY OF MUSASHINO (1998) - KENJI MIZOGUCHI - This compelling and powerful drama captures the moral decadence and emotional brittleness of Japan's post-war society. A young woman trapped in a loveless marriage becomes entangled in a destructive affair with her younger cousin. Ultimately let down by him and her husband, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.

> Four Disc Box Set - Films also available individually.