Oyu - Sama

Kenji Mizoguchi - 1951
Mizoguchi's camera starts long, and can stay there. A mixture of stillness and movements, often those sideways movement that, along with zig zag compostions, non-geometrical framings (though he can do geometrical, perhaps because houses are so...) give that famous sense of a world beyond the frame (similar effect caused by entrances and exits). So he starts long, and tracks or pans along with the movements, usually. He does not though, ever seemingly, cut in for emphasis. If they are far away, they are far away, even if its an important plot point, they can be very far away, the camera not disturbing. The depth is very much a part, all in focus, using a wide stage. Ideas as to why later.
He can cut around sometimes, though this seems to follow a formal pattern (ninety degree moves, for example) before an emotional one, perhaps.
The film overexposes the light, but we only get the light dappled through trees, often at the tops of frames. Thus there is this hazy, mystical effect, through the leaves. It all seemed pretty soft to me. The framings don't give a sense of being exact, but I think they are; one movement can reveal the back of someone else's neck in a new light, or such things, a lot.
So how is the story told? An initial situation, not overmilked, then basically a pile-up of woe, never individually melodramatic but ultimately proving too much for tyhe charatcers. It can be surprisingly honest, or rather straightforward, about sex. There is also an ability to create awkwardness, discomfort, or simply the realistation of how someone else in the room is feeling. The time is passed with quite fast dissolves, often, sometimes in what are essentially silent montage sequences. There are also some lovely non-narrative bits, of empty rooms or flowers.
So what did this add up to for me? The reluctance to place or define an emotion. Not saying; 'this is tears, the emotion' but hiding any exact one for one. A world, a situation, is built, in which forces swirl. The moves off screen, the flow, the exits, are just one element where the emotion is not allowed to be singulaires (and neautralised), defined as one thing. It creates a very individual style.