1953 ‘雨月物語’ Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.
Machiko Kyō Mitsuko Mito Kinuyo Tanaka Masayuki Mori Eitarō Ozawa Sugisaku Aoyama Mitsusaburō Ramon Ryōsuke Kagawa Kichijirô Ueda Shōzō Nanbu Kikue Mōri Ryūzaburō Mitsuoka Ichirô Amano Eigorô Onoe Saburo Date Fumihiko Yokoyama Ichisaburo Sawamura Koji Murata Yukio Horikita Akira Shimizu Shuntaro Tamamura Shirō Osaki Toshio Chiba Hachiro Okuni Shirô Miura Hajime Koshikawa Tetsu Mikami Jun Fujikawa Takaji Fukui Show All…
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Epic history and literature War and historical adventure historical, epic, battle, historic or fought war, soldiers, combat, fought or military death, profound, symbolism, philosophical or vision emotional, emotion, family, moving or feelings shakespearean, kings, breathtaking, battle or historical Show All…
very unsettling, specifically with sound. lots of very eerie noises going on throughout the entire thing. never felt like i was being talked down to either. a refreshingly nuanced take on greed. ceramics!
A glorious cinematic feast for the eyes! A haunting tale with supernatural overtones that will beguile you with its powerfully seductive storyline about man's lust for money and power! And how easily they will sacrifice everything truly meaningful to get it!
A masterfully crafted fable filled with consequences, great loss, regrets and redemption!
65/100
This troubles me.
For as long as I've maintained a film log ("Since 1992"), I've made a point of noting theatrical screenings vs. any form of home video. That's because I don't fully trust the latter. The advent of first DVD and then Blu-ray has helped, to be sure, and I'm not one of those zealots who insists that you haven't seen the movie unless/until you've seen a good 35mm print. But I do often wonder, when underwhelmed by a classic that had previously made me swoon on celluloid, whether seeing it in a diminished condition is largely responsible for the shift.
Here's something I wrote on a private forum after watching Tsai Ming-liang's The River twice in quick…
For a film that remains one of the glories of fantastic cinema, Mizoguchi’s achievement in giving Ugetsu a strong sense of place is remarkable.
Weep. Ugetsu is Mizoguchi's horror film, a nightmare across this life and the next. A man, dirtied and shirtless, wanders across a burnt landscape. Ugetsu draws on folklore and classic Japanese literature to produce quintessential jidaigeki cinema. It is a departure from Mizoguchi's earlier work, being more expansive and complete, beyond just the humiliation and pain of women. The Life of Oharu represented his previous style perfected. But this is beyond, travelling to the abstract.
Ugetsu is morally and socially complex, with a heart that blackens as it struggles to maintain righteousness. It is about the ethics of war, especially the way women suffer. It is filled with needless, pointless deaths, carried out by unnamed, ubiquitous soldiers. In many ways…
Ugetsu is based partially from a classic Japanese folklore literature "Tales of Moonlight and Rain" by author Ueda Akinari. Upon seeing the film again I really want to venture out and find this collection of stories. Mizoguchi's film brilliantly and flawlessly mixes Japanese folklore and morality tales of war, greed, and consequence into an unforgettable film experience.
Japanese folklore and culture have always been a huge fascination for me. Ever since I begun developing a love for cinema, I had noticed my draw was mostly towards Japanese films and films by Ingmar Bergman. There is just something about the films from Japan, either that or it's a stated fact that Japan is just simply a cinematic prosperous country. As evidence…
Part beautiful morality fable, part haunting ghost story, part war film, part love story, part social period drama, and a full on fucking extraordinary piece of cinema.
Where do you even begin with a film like this? Every element of Mizoguchi’s masterpiece Ugetsu is baked in a staggering combination of both pain and beauty, never failing to outline the moral disparities between good and evil. It’s almost like Miyazaki meets Tarkovsky, peasants and workmen going about their daily tasks in the far away background as the camera flows in a swift, fluid (albeit eerie) motion across the eye-popping landscapes. Fog has never looked better. Trees have never looked better. 16th century Japan has never looked better, and yes, I’ve seen Seven Samurai. This is a tale as old as time, focused largely on the primal temptations which lead the best of men to a fixed state of greed. It’s…
Ugetsu is more impressive for its directorial prowess than the actual script. It's a glorious testament to director Kenji Mizoguchi's mastery of cinema language and his ability to extract the maximum entertainment values out of a story, even when the narrative is far from impressive itself.
Based on traditional Japanese folklores, Ugetsu is a resounding cautionary tale on the danger of human greed, against the cruel backdrop of a society amid civil war. Chronicling two couples' surreal experiences of survival and fortune-hunting during social unrest, Ugetsu is simply masterful in its stylish, patient presentation of intertwined character studies, even though almost all "twists" are visible from miles away, but it doesn't take away anything from the viewing experience, thanks to…
"War certainly changes people."
"Without you, my success means nothing."
A national fable of a ghost story wherein Japan is haunted by its own principles. Ambition turned overzealous transforms into greed; what used to push the country forward as a collective community now holds it back as citizens withdraw into their own microcosmic fantasies of individual success. Genjuro does it for the wealth and Tobei does it for the glory, but one is hiding from his nation's crimes and the other is re-entrenching them.
They're only trying to enrich their own lives, but as their ambition grows and they lose track of the reasonable boundaries of their pursuits, they likewise lose track of the world around them. This forgotten, betrayed…
Ugetsu is a masterpiece in the telling of atmospheric ghost stories which helped introduce Japanese cinema to mainstream Western audience, the same as Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Based on Ugetsu Monogatari collection of nine supernatural tales by the Japanese author Ueda Akinari, first published in 1776. It is a tale of ambition, love and deceit that took place in the 16th century during the Japanese Civil War. The film is so well made that you feel as if you're entering the world of mystery that you can feel that bleak and misty atmosphere as you're cruising into another world that you have to risk everything behind and make your fortune just like the characters in this movie.
Tell the story of…
