Product Description
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Two 16th-century Japanese men leave their families: one for a
phantom princess, the other to be a samurai. Directed by Kenji
Mizoguchi.
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Hailed by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, Kenji
Mizoguchi's Ugetsu is an undisputed masterpiece of Japanese
cinema, revealing greater depths of meaning and emotion with each
successive viewing. Mizoguchi's exquisite "gender tragedy" is set
during Japan's violent 16th-century civil wars, a historical
context well-suited to the director's compassionate perspective
on the plight of women and the foibles of men. The story focuses
on two brothers, Genjuro (Masayuki Mori) and Tobei (Sakae Ozawa),
whose dreams of glory (one as a wealthy potter, the other a
would-be samurai) cause them to leave their wives for the promise
of success in Kyoto. Both are led astray by their blind
ambitions, and their wives suffer tragic es in their absence,
as Ugetsu evolves into a masterful mixture of brutal wartime
realism and haunting ghost story. The way Mizoguchi weaves these
elements so seamlessly together is what makes Ugetsu (masterfully
derived from short stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant)
so challenging and yet deeply rewarding as a timeless work of
art. Featuring flawless performances by some of Japan's greatest
actors (including Machiko Kyo, from Kurosawa's omon), Ugetsu
is essential viewing for any serious lover of film. --Jeff
Shannon
DVD features
The Criterion Collection's high standards of scholarly
excellence are on full display in the two-disc set of Ugetsu,
packaged in an elegant slipcase reflecting the tonal beauty of
the film itself, which has been fully restored with a
high-definition digital transfer. The well-prepared commentary by
critic/filmmaker Tony Rayns combines the astute observations of a
serious cineaste (emphasizing a keen appreciation for Mizoguchi's
long-take style, compositional meaning, and literary
inspirations) with informative biographical and historical
detail. In the 14-minute featurette "Two Worlds Intertwined,"
director Masahiro Shinoda discusses how Mizoguchi's career and
films have had a lasting impact on himself and Japanese culture
in general. Interviews with Tokuzo Tanaka (first assistant
director on Ugetsu) and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa focus more
specifically on anecdotal production history Mizoguchi's working
methods, including the director's legendary perfectionism
regarding painstaking details of props, costumes, and production
design.
Disc 2 consists entirely of Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film
Director, a 150-minute documentary from 1975. Though it
occasionally gets bogged down in biographical minutia, the film
provides a thoroughly comprehensive survey of Mizoguchi's career,
including interviews with nearly all of Mizoguchi's primary
collaborators. Director/interviewer Kaneto Shindo ultimately
arrives at an emotionally devastating coup de grace when he
informs the great actress Kinuyo Tanaka (star of The Life of
Oharu and other Mizoguchi classics) that Mizoguchi had considered
her "the love of his life." Tanaka's graceful response provides a
moving appreciation of their artistic bond, which never evolved
into romance. As we learn, the tragic irony of Mizoguchi's life
is that he died in sadness and suffering, in 1956, just as he was
entering a more hopeful and artistically revitalized period of
middle age. After showing us all the locations that were
important in Mizoguchi's life, the film closes with a blunt
discovery of life's ethereal nature: The great director's final
home was torn down and replaced with a station. The 72-page
booklet that accompanies Ugestu contains a well-written
appreciation of the film by critic Phillip Lopate. Also included
are the three short stories that inspired Ugetsu, allowing
readers to see how Mizoguchi and screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda
masterfully combined elements of these unrelated stories to
create one of the enduring classics of Japanese cinema. --Jeff
Shannon