Taki no shiraito | Kenji Mizoguchi | Misato Mochizuki

Taki no Shiraito (The water magician) (1933) is a masterpiece by the Japanese film maker Kenji Mizoguchi (1898–1956). In impressive black and white images, this silent film recounts the dramatic story of an unusual performance artist in a troupe of travelling circus performers, who falls in love with a coach driver. So that he can study to be a lawyer, she borrows money. As ever more pressure is exerted on her by her creditor, she begins to see death as the only way out. She is taken to court and the judge is her lover. The composer Misato Mochizuki is not only inspired by the female protagonist Shiraito, who rebels against the masculine domain, but also by the superb lighting and perspective techniques in the film. Her music masterfully underscores the film’s strong visual language. She combines western and Japanese instruments and adds electroacoustic sounds. The various timbres describe the conflict of the protagonists and the heterogeneous instrumental spectrum symbolises the counterpart to tradition and every day city life.