Japan
1954
124 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Japanese
386
When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.
| Tamaki/Nakagimi | Kinuyo Tanaka |
| Zushiô/Mutsu-Waka | Yoshiaki Hanayaki |
| Anju/Shinobu | Kyoko Kagawa |
| Taira Masauji | Masao Shimizu |
| Sanshô Dayû | Eitarô Shindô |
| Director | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| Producer | Masaichi Nagata |
| Planning | Hisaichi Tsuji |
| Screenplay | Yahiro Fuji and Yoshikata Yoda |
| From the story by | Mori Ôgai |
| Cinematography | Kazuo Miyagawa |
This month marks the centenary of Kinuyo Tanaka, one of Japan’s most prolific actors as well as a director in her own right. In honor of the occasion, Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art is holding a retrospective, and critic Chris Fujiwara has written . . .
If you took a quick poll of the general population of film lovers as to who the most famous classic Japanese directors are, the list would probably be headed by Akira Kurosawa. He is certainly the most visible of the old Japanese masters, though Yasujiro Ozu would likely run him a close second . . .
Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff brings to mind the first line of Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier: “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” The film has a penetrating mournfulness. Mizoguchi develops his medieval fable about moral freedom and slavery with intuition . . .
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