Donald Richie, the famous scholar of Japanese film, has dismissed this as a dull reworking of Chinese* history, albeit with some nice-looking colors. Though many others have agreed, his analysis is correct in one detail merely: the colors are absolutely beautiful, even in the VHS my library has. As it is one of only two color films Mizoguchi ever made, and the more beautiful of the two, this alone would make Yokihi a worthwhile watch.
But this film has a strange relationship with the beauty that is present, both in the color and in the relationship between the Emperor and Yang Kwei-Fei. The film admires beauty, but it is about the prostitution of beauty and the hatred that beauty can inspire. Some have accused it of being merely another Cinderella story, just like all the others, and it would certainly be a mistake to overlook the similarities. But it looks at the Cinderella archetype in a more disillusioned way: instead of being Yang Kwei-Fei's escape from her unfortunate family, her relationship with the Emperor is exploited by the same family members so that she is just as much their slave as she had always been, and so that, when the Chinese peasants get upset at the corruption caused by her family, naturally they lash out at her. But because of the sheer beauty of the film, both visual and in the way that the relationship between the Emperor and Yang Kwei-Fei is treated, the film is not cynical, ironic, and it never thinks itself better than the myths from which it arises. Instead, it becomes a sublime fabulous (in much the same way that many of Mizoguchi's greatest films, such as Zangiku Monogatari, Saikaku Ichidai Onna, Ugetsu Monogatari, and Sansho Dayu, resemble fables) romantic tragedy about beauty and its exploitation.
*This is not a typographical error. Though the film itself is Japanese, the legend of Yang Kwei-Fei is Chinese, and as such the film is set in China.
But this film has a strange relationship with the beauty that is present, both in the color and in the relationship between the Emperor and Yang Kwei-Fei. The film admires beauty, but it is about the prostitution of beauty and the hatred that beauty can inspire. Some have accused it of being merely another Cinderella story, just like all the others, and it would certainly be a mistake to overlook the similarities. But it looks at the Cinderella archetype in a more disillusioned way: instead of being Yang Kwei-Fei's escape from her unfortunate family, her relationship with the Emperor is exploited by the same family members so that she is just as much their slave as she had always been, and so that, when the Chinese peasants get upset at the corruption caused by her family, naturally they lash out at her. But because of the sheer beauty of the film, both visual and in the way that the relationship between the Emperor and Yang Kwei-Fei is treated, the film is not cynical, ironic, and it never thinks itself better than the myths from which it arises. Instead, it becomes a sublime fabulous (in much the same way that many of Mizoguchi's greatest films, such as Zangiku Monogatari, Saikaku Ichidai Onna, Ugetsu Monogatari, and Sansho Dayu, resemble fables) romantic tragedy about beauty and its exploitation.
*This is not a typographical error. Though the film itself is Japanese, the legend of Yang Kwei-Fei is Chinese, and as such the film is set in China.