Sansho Dayu & Gion Bayashi

That's probably the most invidious comparison I have ever suffered the embarassment of burning my retinas with. That's tantamount to comparing seven samurai with an Andy Macnab novel! Cinema literacy and appreciation bypasses some people. What dearth of ideas could compel a person to take recourse to casting such nonsensical aspersions? To paraphrase Andre Bazin, anyone who prefers Kurosawa to Mizoguchi must be blind. Oh, and who is this Yoshida blokey? This film is directed by Kenji Mizoguchi!

Anyway, to the film. It is a part of his great historical triptych, the other two being Ugetsu and Oharu. They sit majestically in the temple of cinema's most sacred works. The film is set in the Heian period of japanese history, and needless to say it is a tragedy informed by Mizoguchi's monomaniacal disdain for tyranny and injustice, much like a film by Ritwik Ghatak, and also the ecstacy generated by Mizoguchi's keen aestheticism.

Mizoguchi's attention to the symbols of the era, such as the costumes and the architecture, is as ever, meticulous, the art direction being some of the best I've seen. The physical refinement, pictorialism and sophistication of Mizoguchi's films is in contradistinction to the tastelessness of today's childishly designed Hollywood films.

Kazuo Miyagawa was the director of photography for this film, and he certainly ennobled it with his contribution. When watching Mizoguchi's films, I often get the impression that the mise-en-scene is shot through a crystalline lens, because of the superlative way silky, watery surfaces register on the black and white film stock, be it the silk of a kimono, the burnished wood of the interiors, the limpidity of the water or the clearly defined, sinuous visual patterns. In this film, there is a prominence of earthy, natural textures, amplified beautifully by the black and white photography.

Sometimes, the less discriminating viewer criticises what they see as the theatricality of his films, a groundless, unvindicated assertion. The naturalism of the movement, the freedom and dynamism of the camera, the use of real locations, the lack of self-conscious emotion in the acting, the intricate observation of manners, the assiduous historical research etc, all invalidate this missapprehension. Maybe they are confusing his aestheticism with theatricality. Any old mediocrity without a shred of talent can observe the verisimilitudes of exterior appearances, but it takes an artist of distinction to transcend material reality and illuminate interior, metaphysical truths. To paraphrase Jean Renoir, an attention to the particularites of outer appearances often hides a falsity of feeling, and if I may say so, an impoverished imagination!

Sansho Dayu

Difficult to review ... well filmed (relatively poor copy); instructive about traditional Japanese culture, background etc.; almost too miserable to watch. The story is - I understand - an ancient one, with several variants, here modified for the film. It is a doomed tale of dreadful injustice and hideous cruelty, with no happy ending. Does Mizoguchi overdo that? The manorial sho-en system in the Haien period is shown all too convincingly: do not blame Japanese culture or character - was a mediæval English manor, or an American slave plantation, not as cruel? As a genuine criticism, I would suggest that a number of loose ends are left hanging untidily in the telling of the story - sparing us some of the horrors - though one can all too easily imagine the unrelated fates of the characters in question. The accompanying commentary is excellent.

Gion Bayashi

The high culture of the geisha moving into the disrupted post-war 1950s - with delicate and quite disturbing personal lives coming to life not so much in front of you as under your skin. A film which shows just how perceptive and sensitive Mizoguchi can be. Fascinating if you are trying to understand Japan, and humanity in Japan, with all its traditions, from a distance.

Much food for thought here, as individual and collective morality and humanity are examined in a deceptively simple tale. There are some plot contrivances and events that don't quite ring true, but Mizoguchi's elegant direction and the sweep of the story keep the emotions and brain stimulated.

Sansho dayu

I hate to disagree, but I found this film to drag. There wasn't a lot to the plot and one thing I noticed was how bland the directing was.

Obviously, some people really rate this film and therefore I expect a lot of people will disagree with me, but that's just my opinion. I'm not a hater of foreign films and slow pacing is not normally an issue for me either - as long as the scene has something to wallow in.

I have no complaints about the acting or the overall professionalism of the film, it was just in my opinion overly slow paced for such a thin plot, it didn't capture my imagination and it was nothing spectacular to look at.

Some people may find this a `life-changing experience' but I can't imagine why.

Gion Bayashi was slightly more watchable, but overall suffered from the same issues.

Sorry, not keen at all!

Just a quick 'review' to join others in singing the praises of this film - Mizoguchi was undoubtedly as much a master of cinema as Kurosawa, Renoir, Bergman et al and Sansho Dayu is arguably his best. Sumptuously shot, it's a haunting, humanistic film which is truly essential viewing for any self-respecting film buff. I've been waiting for this to come out on DVD for years, too!