Tribute to Kenji Mizoguchi 2017 / Ugetsu monogatari / Japan 1953
Rural potters Genjuro and Tobei set off to Kyoto to sell their wares, unaware that their village has been sacked by marauding samurai. Heading home, their paths diverge and, as events take their course, both men receive salutary shocks. Simple human values come up against transient follies and vanities, to supremely moving effect.
The most famous of all Mizoguchi films is based on two ghost stories by Ueda Akinari, written in the 18th century but set earlier, amid the civil wars of the 16th. Rural potters Genjuro and Tobei set off to Kyoto to sell their wares, unaware that their village has been sacked by marauding samurai. Heading home, their paths diverge: Tobei absurdly tries to fulfil his dream of becoming a soldier, while Genjuro is seduced by a mysterious, ghostly noblewoman in her villa on the shore of Lake Biwa. As events take their course, both men receive salutary shocks. Mizoguchi uses conventions from the noh theatre stage to depict the mysterious Lady Wakasa, but the film as a whole is rooted in a kind of lyrical historical realism. Simple human values come up against transient follies and vanities, to supremely moving effect. This masterly film won Mizoguchi two more Venice prizes.
Tony Rayns
96 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Kenji Mizoguchi
/ Screenplay Matsutaro Kawaguchi, Yoshikata Yoda podle příběhů / based on stories by Akinari Ueda
/ Dir. of Photography Kazuo Miyagawa
/ Music Fumio Hayasaka
/ Editor Mitsuzo Miyata
/ Art Director Kisaku Ito
/ Producer Masaichi Nagata
/ Production Daiei, Kyoto
/ Cast Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka, Machiko Kyo, Sakae Ozawa, Mitsuko Mito
/ Sales Kadokawa Corporation
/ Contact The Film Foundation, Inc.
The Film Foundation, Inc.
7920 Sunset Boulevard, 6th Floor, CA 90046, Los Angeles
United States of America
Phone: +1 212 258 0860
Kadokawa Corporation
2-13-12 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, 102-8552, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 807 233 6972
E-mail: [email protected]
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