A telephone operator turns to prostitution after being fired from the Japanese pharmaceutical firm where she was also her boss’s mistress.

A critical and popular triumph, Osaka Elegy established Mizoguchi as one of Japan’s major filmmakers. The director’s often-used leading actress Isuzu Yamada stars as Ayako, a switchboard operator trapped in a compromising, ruinous relationship with her boss to help support her wastrel father. With its fluid cinematography and deft storytelling, Osaka Elegy ushered in a new era of sound melodrama for Mizoguchi.