A long unavailable masterpiece of japanese cinema, in a new restorationa peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in japanese society throughout its history, kenji mizoguchi ugetsu 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 incredibly talented kinuyo tanaka the ballad of narayama as an imperial lady in waiting who gradually descends to street prostitution, was the movie that gained itsdirector international attention, ushering in a new golden period for him.special edition featuresnew high definition digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackintroductory commentary by scholar dudley andrewmizoguchi's art and the demimonde, an illustrated audio essay featuring andrewkinuyo tanaka's new departure, a 2009 film by koko kajiyama documenting the actor's 1949 goodwill tour of the united statesnew english subtitle translationplus a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar gilberto perez