Mizoguchi and Japan - Paperbackby Mark Le Fanu (Author) For a majority of filmgoers, the names most usually associated with classic Japanese cinema are those of Kurosawa and Ozu. Yet during the early 1950s, at the same time that Kurosawa was becoming known to the public through the release of classics like Rashomon and The Seven Samurai, another Japanese director, Kenji Mizoguchi, quietly came out with a trilogy of films The Life of Oharu, Ugetsu Monogatari and Sansho the Bailiff