In 8th-century China, the Emperor grieves the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their court influence. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen, whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets.
Cinematography
Mizoguchi's crane shots: architecture swallowing humans whole.
Acting
Machiko Kyō's stillness contains multitudes of complicity.
Costume
Every robe weighs like a death sentence.
Director
Kenji Mizoguchi
Machiko Kyō
Princess Yang Kwei-fei
Masayuki Mori
Emperor Xuan Zong
So Yamamura
An Lushan
Eitarō Shindō
Kao Li-hsi
Eitarō Ozawa
Yang Kuo-chung
Haruko Sugimura
Princess Yen-chun
Yōko Minamida
Hung-tao
Bontarō Miake
Chen-Hsuan-li
Tatsuya Ishiguro
Li Lin-fu
Kinzō Shin
Servant
Isao Yamagata
Yang Hsien
Chieko Murata
Lu-hua
Noboru Kiritachi
Cuihua
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mizoguchi shot two versions simultaneously—Japanese and Mandarin-dubbed for Hong Kong release, a practice so exhausting he allegedly collapsed.
The 1955 Cannes jury, including Grace Kelly, awarded this the Silver Lion mainly for its color; they missed that Mizoguchi was essentially making an anti-technicolor film about how spectacle consumes women.
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