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Bookmark this pageSansho Dayu (1954)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A humane provincial governor in 11th century Japan is forced into exile by his political opponents, and the members of his family (wife, son and daughter) fall victim to all the cruelties of the period while on their way to join him. Mizoguchi views this deliberately simple story (in Japan it is known as a folk-tale) from two perspectives at once: from the inside, as an overwhelmingly moving account of a man (the son) facing up to his own capacity for barbarism; and from the outside, as an infinitely tender meditation on history and individual fate. The twin perspectives yield a film that is both impassioned and elegiac, dynamic in its sense of the social struggle and the moral options, and yet also achingly remote in its fragile beauty. The result is even more remarkable than it sounds.Author: TR
User reviews of this film
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- Tom Barrett said...
- Posted on May 11 2011 13:20 An absolute masterpiece with surely the most powerful closing scene in the history of film. Will haunt you for the rest of your life.
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- Henrique said...
- Posted on Jan 10 2009 03:14 Wonderful, one of the best films I ever saw in my life. Even better tan Ugetsu.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Producer: Masaichi Nagata
Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayaki, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo, Akitake Kono, Masao Chimizu full cast
Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers
Duration: 123 mins
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