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After the March tribute to Kinuyo Tanaka’s achievements as a director, come see one of her most iconic acting roles. A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society, Kenji Mizoguchi had already been directing movies for decades when he made The Life of Oharu in 1952. But this epic portrait of an inexorable fall from grace, starring the astounding Tanaka as an imperial lady-in-waiting who gradually descends to street sex work, was the movie that gained the director international attention, ushering in a new golden period for him. Description adapted from Janus Films. (Dir.: Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1952, 136 min., 35mm, Japanese with English subtitles)