Based on a 17th century dark comedic Japanese novel, this is literally the saddest movie about a woman's life I've ever seen or will see. Directed by Kanji Mizoguchi, one of Japan's great directors, he was deeply sympathetic to a woman's life based on seeing his father sell his beloved sister to be a concubine.

This is one of many things that happen to Oharu, who cannot find more than fleeing moments of happiness as a cruel world and cruel people use her and get rid of her, with a snowballing effect as every tragedy passes to simply become the basis of the next.

She begins life as a lady of the court in 17th century Edo period Japan, the daughter of a samurai, but true love with a page leads to her ousting. She is sold by her father and becomes a concubine to the emperor and births him a son and his advisors quickly kick her out. Her father sell her again, this time to a brothel, but it goes awry after the involvement of a counterfeiter.

That's not to say she doesn't make own bad decisions. She does. But the majority of her suffering comes from others. This is a story of rape and death, of destitution and prostitution, and a sly way of looking at the harm we do ourselves by assuming we know how someone got to be where and who they are.

I also learned that Mizoguchi made 89 films and over half of them are now lost.

Good lord is it depressing.