The Water Magician

The Water Magician (Taki no Shiraito 1933) is a silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The plot of a performer (water magician) who falls in love with a poor student and supports him financially through his studies is one that will reappear in Osaka Elegy in 1939. The role of Shiraito is is a typical Mizoguchi heroine: stoic, giving, desperate, kind, broken by the cruel fate of life. This role is played by Takako Irie, who would appear later in several Akira Kurosawa films. So again one can see traces of the director Mizoguchi would become with some of the artisticaly framed shots, camera mobility, angles, rapid-cuts, pans, layers, modernity, the whole visual fog transmuting during the dancing waters.