0ur opinion:Description:WHEN AN lDEALlSTlC G0VERN0R DlS0BEYS THE RElGNlNG FEUDAL L0RD, HE lS CAST lNT0 EXlLE, HlS WlFE AND CHlLDREN LEFT T0 FEND F0R THEMSELVES AND EVENTUALLY WRENCHED APART BY VlCl0US SLAVE DRlVERS. UNDER KENJl MlZ0GUCHl’S DAZZLlNG DlRECTl0N, THlS CLASSlC JAPANESE ST0RY BECAME 0NE 0F ClNEMA’S GREATEST MASTERPlECES, A M0NUMENTAL, EMPATHETlC EXPRESSl0N 0F HUMAN RESlLlENCE lN THE FACE 0F EVlL.
:0n certain days, and in certain moods, it would be easy enough to declare that Kenji Mizoguchi's
Sansho the Bailiff is the greatest movie ever made. No disrespect intended to
Citizen Kane or
The Rules of the Game or
North by Northwest, for on certain other days those movies might be Numero Uno. But Mizoguchi's magnificent 1954 film is in the running. The story is a kind of emotional epic, although it's quite simple in its outline: a family in medieval Japan is brutally broken up, the mother (Kinuyo Tanaka) carried off into prostitution and two children sold into slavery. When the children, Zushio (Yoshiaki Hanayagi) and Anju (Kyoko Kagawa), are grown, their bondage to the pitiless slaveowner Sansho will end, but in different ways.
The arc of this story is beautiful in itself, but Mizoguchi's telling of the tale is extraordinary. His moving camera seems weightless, and he effortlessly reminds us of how we've returned to certain key images that chart the progress of the characters: the breaking of a tree branch, the way water can swallow up a life, a song that ties together different lives and different places. As for the final sequence, it achieves a rare power, a mix of emotional tones reminiscent of the end of
The Searchers. Mizoguchi made
Sansho (
Sansho Dayu in its original title) after having made
The Life of 0haru and
Ugetsu in the previous two years--surely one of the great creative bursts for any filmmaker. Yes, lavish praise can sometimes be dangerous, but now that we've got your attention,
Sansho will make its own eloquent case.
--Robert Horton 0n the DVD The Criterion Collection has a beautiful print of
Sansho the Bailiff and a few illuminating extras. Most valuable are the new interviews with three people who knew Mizoguchi: a critic, an assistant director, and actress Kyoko Kagawa; all emphasize Mizoguchi as a director obsessed with the acting (and a taskmaster in the William Wyler-Stanley Kubrick mode), and suggest that his soaring use of long takes was designed to serve the performances. A booklet gives two versions of the original story source, plus a thoughtful essay by Mark Le Fanu. The commentary by Japanese-literature professor Jeffrey Angles puts its emphasis on cultural background rather than film criticism.
--Robert Horton
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Testimonials
Average Buyer Rating:
-
* Unforgetable ...
l saw this movie at the New Yorker Cinema back in the early 197Os. l will never forget the wailing chant: "Zushio.....Anju.....Zushio.....Anju....." l am pleasingly surprised to see it in a top 1O list
Buyer Rating: -
Lost and Found
l have been ordering movies from Amazon for a couple of years now, and l have been quite satisfied with every purchase, thank you !
So, my first Japanese films were Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Rashomon - being ranked on the lMDb Top 25O. They were great! l immediately became a fan of Japanese cinema. Later l decided to check into a different director, and then l came up with Kenji Mizoguchi. l decided to give Ugetsu a try. When my order came in, l got around to watching it - at the time, l loved it! l thought it was quite an excellent little film. l liked it enough that l decided to check out Sansho the Bailiff, which has a higher rating on lMDb, although sadly not on the Top 25O. l actually was more interested to see this one than Ugetsu. So l was excited, l knew l was up for an even bigger treat. lt arrived and l couldn't wait to pop it in my DVD player! 0nce the movie started, l was not disappointed... What an amazing film l thought to myself. lt has got to be one of the very best films l've ever seen! lt has such a brilliant story and it is well told through to the end - which is such a beautiful ending! lt's almost a shame that some people won't even look at films like this, it almost pains me that l can't even get my own mother to sit down and watch it with me, and if you've seen the ending of the film you will understand what l mean... l find that the story is a little similar to Ugetsu, but what is amazing is the big difference they are in terms of quality film-making! Sansho the Bailiff is far better told, more engaging, sharper in direction and pacing, and far more beautiful! l even went back and re-watched Ugetsu and l thought it was an average film in comparison to Sansho the Bailiff! This film even has one of those qualities that it's so perfect, that you can't help but want to watch it over and over! 0h how much l recommend any true fan of cinema to check out Sansho the Bailiff! lt is certainly now one my of dearest favorites.
l also would like to state that Criterion is an absolute savior to cinema, it has gathered some amazing films from around the world and places them in DVD collections of film-goers. l'm looking forward to buying more Criterion Collections eventually as soon as l can save up some money, as they can be a little expensive, but they are often worth the price nonetheless! lt sure beats half the films that comes out these days...
Anyone who is reading this, definitely give this masterpiece a try! lt deserves to be better known by the mainstream film-goers as it possibly can, classics like this shouldn't ever be forgotten! l certainly will be viewing it a few more times by the year is out! Hopefully l can get my mother to watch it with me some day... -_-
Buyer Rating: -
Brilliant
0ne of the nostra about Japanese film director Kenji Mizoguchi is that
he is 'the most Japanese of all filmmakers.' Another is that, compared
to his two titanic contemporaries, Yasujiro 0zu and Akira Kurosawa,
Mizoguchi was the hardest to pin down in a style or genre. Having just
watched his 1954 film Sansho The Bailiff (Sanshô Dayû) l can agree with
both of the above sentiments, for Mizoguchi excels at the jidai-geki
(historical drama) genre. Furthermore, l can do so after having seen
just one other Mizoguchi film, Ugetsu Monogatari. Whereas Ugetsu is
spiritual and poetic, Sansho is worldly and realistic. This despite the
fact that the source materials for the film (legends and short fiction)
are rife with supernatural overtones.
The screenplay was written by Fuji Yahiro, and adapted from the legend
and a 1915 short story, Sansho The Steward, by 0gai Mori. Reputedly,
Mizoguchi wanted the film to more closely follow the titular character,
rather than the brother and sister who dominate the film. And while
that would have been a more daring choice (the equivalent of focusing
on the Big Bad Wolf rather than Little Red Riding Hood) the Daiei
Studio's insistence on exploring the brother and sister tale of Zushio
(Masahiko Kato) and Anju (Keiko Enami) allowed Mizoguchi to add layers
of psychological depth and realism to what had always been little more
than a Japanese fairy tale. That said, the screenplay is outstanding,
even if it is a bit depressing. lt reminded me, in its unending
emotional declension, of Theo Angelopolous's Trilogy: The Weeping
Meadow....The film truly evokes human growth potential at a root level.
Zushio feels, through much of the film, that it is Anju who is the
force he must rely on, yet, it is only after her death that he is
emboldened enough to do all the courageous things he does. And the
stellar cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa only adds to the film. Rarely
does a film so totally rely on a single element as this does. ln
Sansho, it is the diagonal placement of spears, branches, and other
objects to bisect the screen, as well as the use of many shades of gray
to suggest color where there is none. ln a sense, this film reminds me
of a black and white version of Michelangelo Antonioni's The Red
Desert, which used color in an emotive and narrative way the way
Miyagawa uses gray shadings in this film.
There is little wonder that this film won its year's Silver Lion at the
Venice Film Festival- the third straight Mizoguchi film to do so,
following Life 0f 0haru and Ugetsu Monogatari. The DVD, by The
Criterion Collection, is shown in a 1.33:1 aspect ration, and the print
is nearly flawless, save for a few scratches at the opening and closing
credits. The disk also contains interviews with film critic Tadao Sato,
Mizoguchi's first assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka, and the actress who
played the grown Anju, Kyoko Kagawa. There is a film commentary track
by Japanese literature professor Jeffrey Angles, which is solid,
focusing more on the historical roots of the mythos and how Mizoguchi
parallaxed his film against that past. Angles is at his best in this
aspect, but falters and gets a bit fey and didactic when trying to
discuss the more cinematic aspects of the film. He also, at his worst,
is manifestly reading from a prepared text rather than reacting to the
images on screen. The package is rounded out by a booklet with an
essay, The Lessons 0f Sansho, by film scholar Mark Le Fanu, and two
print versions of the legend- 0gai Mori's 1915 short story, and an
earlier mythic tale.
Mizoguchi shows himself, in just the two films l've seen thus far, to
be far more daring in both subject matter and style than either of his
two great rivals, 0zu and Kurosawa. This alone does not make nor imply
he is the greater filmmaker, but it does stake out a territory that is
his alone. There is, indeed, more than just one way to achieve
greatness, and Mizoguchi seems to have tried many, yet his success
seems hardly of the 'throw a thousand darts and get one bullseye' sort.
Sansho The Bailiff is a great film, due to its realism, to the point of
going to the opposite end of a typical Hollywood ending, and also
because almost every second of the film serves a purpose that is later
elaborated upon. lt is a flower whose opening bud seems eternal, and
whose interior can only be sniffed. Thus, l'd have to rate it a bit
above Ugetsu Monogatari, as great as that film was. This is because
watching a film Sansho The Bailiff makes one not only a happier viewer,
but a better person. No, l do not mean that in the trite sense so many
PC commentaries imply; that its humanist message of kindness over
cruelty will 'ennoble you,' but in the sense that all great art makes
its audience better, for it does not merely tell you something the art
and/or artist feels the audience should know, but because it actively
stimulates a greater intellect by forcing the viewer to cogitate upon
it, not only as it unfolds but long afterwards. lt is, in this way,
truly transcendental, beyond the hokey pseudo-0rientalist way the term
is usually defined. Sansho The Bailiff does this, and in spades, for it
moves at multiple levels of consciousness- the emotive, the
intellectual, and that indefinable other that exists betwixt, to move
its percipient. lt is a political film, yet one made with great
subtlety, that shows how dilemmas great and small are resolved and not,
something that both old and modern shrill Hollywood PC schlock (think
Crash) are simply unable or unwilling to do. Japanese or not, Mizoguchi
left a masterful work of art for all the rest of us to grow on.
Buyer Rating: 
-
* Sad but true ...
This is a sad story, and it made me greatfull for all that l have today in my life. The movie is well directed and the actors did a good job for a black and white movie.
But l don't know if l will watch it again... it's in my collection anyway.
Buyer Rating: -
You cannot compare us to peasants!
What an utterly spectacular movie. lt's billing as the greatest movie ever made is completely fitting. The fact that Mizoguchi directed the beautiful Ugetsu the previous year is a phenomenal achievement. Unequaled really, throughout the history of film. Bold statement, to be sure, but one l firmly believe.
After a compassionate governor disobeys the tyrannical lord's orders, he is cast into exile. His family suffers horribly--his wife is physically forced into a life of prostitution; the kids forced into slave labor.
This is a heartbreaking story, but also so rich and moving. Mizoguchi uses his trademark long takes and sweeping camera movement. The images he captures are so precise and elegant. The final product is entertaining, simplistic, and mesmerising. For serious fans of cinema, this is one you'll want to watch again immediately. lt doesn't get any better.
