Sansho the Bailiff
Sansho Dayu was awesome. I don't think I've ever seen such an intense emotional rollercoaster before or after.
Anju, how I long for you.
Isn't life torture?How a song found a mother's children. Such a beautiful and tragic story. The last ten minutes were intense and powerful.
Kenji Mizoguchi, the director, is one of the big four. The four are Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse, and of course, Kenji Mizoguchi. If you haven't explored the classic film canon of mid 20th Century Japanese cinema, aside from
Sansho Dayu, no better time to start than now.
Since you're familiar with
Sansho the Bailiff, then you might be aware that the mother was played by Kinuyo Tanaka. Much earlier in this thread, I mentioned a wonderful Yasujiro Ozu film starring Kinuyo Tanaka. It was
Equinox Flower. Ozu is pretty much universally praised as one of the greatest directors of all time. In practical terms, what does that mean? It means that everyone who gets familiar with his work absolutely loves it. I earnestly encourage you to explore not just the films of the big four, but also films by these semi contemporaries of the big four: Keisuke Kinoshita, Masahiro Shinoda, Shohei Imamura, Nagasi Oshima, and Masaki Kobayashi.
But first, since you've seen Sansho the Bailiff, let's take a deeper look at what others are saying.
David Bordwell on Mizoguchi and Sansho the Bailiff:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/figures_intro.php?ss=3Roger Ebert lists Sansho the Bailiff as one of the 'Great Films' and gives it four stars:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-sansho-the-bailiff-1954Two articles from Criterion:
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2678-sansho-the-bailiff-the-lessons-of-sanshohttp://www.criterion.com/current/posts/960-sansho-the-bailiffThe 50s were indeed a great time for Japanese movies. The emotional impact of some of these are staggering. I suspect this has much to do with the healing the Japanese psyche needed after Hiroshima.
Other favorites of mine from that time:
- Kurosawas
Ikiru, Rashomon and
The Seven Samurai of course
-
Ugetsu monogatari, which you already mentioned
- Ozu's
Tokyo mongatari is another treat dealing with the mental break between Taisho-era Japan (agrarian, slow, reserved) and the brash, industrial, hurried Showa-era Japan symbolized in the struggles of a family.
I've seen all of those, except for
Ikiru, which I have on DVD, so it's on my list.
Regarding
Ugetsu, the lead is played by Masayuki Mori, who also is in
Rashomon. He also appears in two other films which I absolutely love. They are Kurosawa's
The Idiot, and Mikio Naruse's
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. I wholeheartedly encourage you to get into the Mikio Naruse films, pretty much all starring Hideko Takamine.
As for Ozu's
Tokyo Story (
Tokyo mongatari), if you haven't seen these other Ozu titles, watch them as soon as you can:
Late Spring
Early Summer
Tokyo Twilight
Equinox Flower
Late Autumn
The End of Summer
Floating Weeds
An Autumn AfternoonRegarding Setsuko Hara, who was in
Tokyo Story, she's also in
Late Spring,
Early Summer,
Tokyo Twilight,
Late Autumn and
The End of Summer. But she's also in Kurosawa's
The Idiot. And she's also in another gem of Kurosawa's:
No Regrets for our Youth. She's also in Mikio Naruse's
Sound of the Mountain, which I haven't seen yet.
And then regarding Hideko Takamine, who I mentioned was in Mikio Naruse's
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, she also gives a wonderful performance in Keisuke Kinoshita's
Twenty-four Eyes. That's another one of those films where the last ten minutes is just amazingly powerful.
No doubt your familiar with Toshiro Mifune, appearing in so many Kurosawa films. He also gives a wonderful performance in Hiroshi Inagaki's
Samurai Trilogy. That trilogy also stars Mariko Okada, who gave a feisty performance in Ozu's
Late Autumn.
And speaking of actresses named Mariko, an absolute must watch is Masahiro Shinoda's
Pale Flower, starring the incredibly beautiful Mariko Kaga.