Sansho dayu / Sansho the BailiffYear 1954
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
Writers Ogai Mori, Fuji Yahiro, Yoshikata Yoda
With Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo
Japan
In Japanese
DVD Criterion (repeat)
Overview When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.
Few if any films can match the feeling for the beauty of nature, the mix of painterly eye, captivating silvery luminosity (even accompanied by a sense of sinister foreboding). The great cinematographer Miyagawa does a magnificent job. Mizoguchi trusted his cinematographers and presumably his own sense of shot set-up, and what he wanted, without recourse to the viewfinder. He usually tended to give actors/actresses, designers and loyal screenwriter Yoda a very much harder time by all accounts. He was a stickler for historical authenticity. Mizoguchi is renowned for serene fluid camera moves (masterly yet unobtrusive tracking and crane shots area trademark) but equally he knew when stillness was required. You see that in the central, heart-rending scene i’ll call Anju’s ripples. There’s more impact in her few ripples than a Hollywood tidal wave.
Some experience the film as too fraught with harrowing suffering, and consider it pessimistic. For me it finds a poignant balance between suffering and beauty, cruelty and love, imprisonment and freedom, pain and redemption, loss and comfort.
I consider Sansho the Bailiff the exquisite peak of cinema.
Rating 5/5
