Criterion #309

Kenji Mizoguchi is a director whose movies you will always see on everybody's best of lists, but he has very few films available on DVD in North America. I'm sick of reading about how great The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums is, I wanna see it, goddamnit! When Criterion finally released one of his films, I immediately got excited and queued it up on Netflix. I soon put it on the backburner when a friend told me it was just "okay". This film was his 1953 ghost story Ugetsu, Criterion #309. I'm now going to call my friend an idiot. Another few months later, Criterion released his 1954 period masterpiece Sansho the Bailiff, which I immediately watched and loved. I was left seriously moved by its beautiful, and somehow realistic-seeming optimism. It's manufactured sentimentality at its greatest, its most sincere and affecting.

I mention Sansho only because the two films seem like they purposefully complement each other. Indeed, only one year separates them. Criterion should have looked into a nice box set release. Both films chronicle the struggles of the peasant class in 17th century Japan. Sansho sees some of the rich take a fall down the economic ladder. Ugetsu sees some of the poor briefly flirting with the top, and is definitely the more somber of the two.

Ugetsu follows two poor men and their families during a destructive civil war. One of the men is a potter who realizes he can make a minor fortune selling his pots in a nearby town because of the war economy. The other man decides to accompany him in the hope that he can become a samurai by apprenticing himself to one traveling through the town. Both men end up finding their selfish success both to different degrees, but both at a large cost to their wives and families.

This is where I would like to discuss how Mizoguchi's work tends to deal heavily with wronged women and how he masterfully aligns the audiences sympathy with them. Of course I know nothing of his large filmography, but this is what people tend to discuss in regards to Mizoguchi. Regardless of whatever he usually did, that is certainly what he ha done to great success here.

I can't give away much more plot without giving away major secrets, but I can repeat that it is a ghost story, however a non-traditional one. Mizoguchi proves to be a master at blending realities seamlessly. A ghost appearance in Ugetsu is not meant to spook or scare, but is such an organic part of the narrative that their presence could even be missed if you weren't paying enough attention.

The film quietly moves to its deeply affecting conclusion, even ending with a little bittersweet hope. But aside from the ending, the film is another near perfect entry into the two movie filmography I've had the pleasure of experiencing.

Ugetsu: 9.3/10

The film disc has a couple of interviews with frequent Mizoguchi crew members. I learned that the director was most definitely a perfectionist. I saw the run-time of the documentary Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director on the second disc and got scared. The film itself looks and sounds beautiful, as most Criterion releases do.

I'll keep from giving the who release since I clearly skipped out on the majority of the special features.