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Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama Details

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Ugetsu Monogatar: Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari [Tales of the Rain and Moon] is a highly acclaimed masterwork of Japanese cinema. Based on a pair of 18th century ghost stories by Ueda Akinari. Amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in .. Read more

Starring Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ikio Sawamura
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
Genres Drama, World Cinema

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Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama cover art

Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama

Ugetsu Monogatar: Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari [Tales of the Rain and Moon] is a highly acclaimed masterwork of Japanese cinema. Based on a pair of 18th century ghost stories by Ueda Akinari. Amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory, respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. Famed for its meticulously orchestrated long takes and its subtle blending of realistic period reconstruction and lyrical supernaturalism, Ugetsu Monogatari is an intensely poetic tragedy that consistently features on polls of the best films ever made.

Oyu-Sama:Another literary adaptation - this time of a story by one of Japan's modern literary masters, novelist Tanizaki Jun'ichiro - Mizoguchi's Oyu-sama [Miss Oyu] is a poignant and contemplative tale of two sisters and their ill-fated relationship with the same man. At the core is Mizoguchi-regular Tanaka Kinuyo (who also stars in Ugetsu Monogatari) as the eponymous Oyu, the older sister who allows marital customs to dictate the lives of those caught up in this complex love triangle. Continuing the director's fascination with the relationship between affairs of the heart and the social mores that shape and sometimes destroy them, Mizoguchi transforms his subject matter into the realm of the transcendental through the use of long, mobile shots - an approach that reaches its apotheosis in a take of almost six minutes - infused with humanity and emotion.

Starring Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ikio Sawamura, Nobuko Otowa, Yuji Hori, Kiyoko Hirai
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
Studio EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT
Certificate DVD Certificate PG.gif
Genres Drama, World Cinema
Language Japanese
Subtitles English
Released DVD: 21 Apr 2008
Format DVD

Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama (2 discs)

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  • Sign up Ugetsu Monogatari

    'Ugetsu Monogatari' (1953) is set in 16th Century Japan where the Emperor has become an impotent figurehead, a...

  • Sign up Oyu-Sama

    'Oyu-sama' (1951) tells the story of two sisters and their ill-fated relationship with the same man. Tayaka pl...

  • Most helpful member's review of Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama

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  • 12 out of 12 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    Masterful stuff

    Since 'Ugetsu monogatori' has been widely celebrated, and, as another poster on this page confirms, remains one of cinema's most bewitching ghost stories, it may be worth spending a few words on its companion disc in this set, 'Miss Oyu'. Almost unknown prior to this release, it turns out to be a marvellous story of doomed love in the first quarter of the twentieth century, with a shy young man falling for the sister of the woman it has been arranged he should marry. When she reciprocates his passion, it is clear that no-one is going to be very happy. Mizoguchi steers well clear of soap opera, despite the flaws in the story, and creates a gentle, delicate atmosphere of three people whose lives are doomed never to come together successfully. It's a lovely film, directed with something approaching brilliance in the compositions and framing (note how the backgrounds all rhyme with the increasingly prison-like nature of the characters' emotions), poignant and moving.

      • Savage from London, England
      • Posted 02 May 2008 11:35

  • Most recent members' review of Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Ugetsu Ghost story full of pathos and surprise

    I loved Oharu and Lady of Musashino and this one has the same mixture of tragic lifestory historical pageantry strangeness inscrutability and pathos, closer to Miyazaki and Spirited Away than to Kurosawa or even Ozu.

      • A customer from London
      • Posted 15 Sep 2008 14:51

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      • Ugetsu Monogatar: Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari [Tales of the Rain and Moon] is a highly acclaimed masterwork of Japanese cinema. Based on a pair of 18th century ghost stories by Ueda Akinari. Amidst ...