Sansho the Bailiff: The Lessons of Sansho
By February 27, 2013
More than eighty films into his career, Kenji Mizoguchi made this emotionally devastating . . . Read more »
Film Info
- Japan
- 1954
- 124 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- Japanese
- Spine #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.
Cast
| Tamaki/Nakagimi | Kinuyo Tanaka |
| Zushiô/Mutsu-Waka | Yoshiaki Hanayagi |
| Anju/Shinobu | Kyoko Kagawa |
| Taira Masauji | Masao Shimizu |
| Sanshô Dayû | Eitarô Shindô |
| Taro | Atikake Kono |
| Donmo | Rosuke Kagawa |
| Fujiwara | Ken Mitsuda |
| Taira Masasue | Shozo Nanbu |
| Ubatake | Chieko Naniwa |
| Kichiji | Bontaro Miake |
| Kinpei | Saburo Date |
| Slave trader | Akira Shimizu |
| Nio | Ichiro Sugai |
| Namji | Kimiko Tachibana |
| Kohagi | Yoko Kozono |
| Naito Kaikudo | Kanji Koshiba |
| Shinto priestess | Kikue Mori |
| Jiro of Sado | Yukio Horikita |
| Saburo Miyazaki | Hachiro Okuni |
| New ”Nakagimi” | Teruko Omi |
| Zushio as a child | Naoki Fujima |
| Zushio as a boy | Masahiko Kato |
| Anju as a child | Keiko Enami |
Credits
| Director | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| Producer | Masaichi Nagata |
| Planning | Hisaichi Tsuji |
| Screenplay | Fuji Yahiro and Yoshikata Yoda |
| From the story ”Sansho dayu” by | Ôgai Mori |
| Director of photography | Kazuo Miyagawa |
| Assistant photographer | Shozo Tanaka |
| Lighting | Kenichi Okamoto |
| Assistant director | Tokuzô Tanaka |
| Editor | Mitsuzo Miyata |
| Art directors | Kisaku Ito and Kozaburo Nakajima |
| Assistant art director | Akira Naito |
| Set decorator | Yuichiro Yamamoto |
| Paintings | Tazaburo Ota |
| Costumes | Yoshio Ueno and Yoshimi Shima |
| Makeup | Masanori Kobayashi |
| Music | Fumio Hayasaka |
| Sound | Iwao Otani |
Disc Features
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary featuring Japanese-literature scholar Jeffrey Angles
- Interviews with critic Tadao Sato, assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka, and actress Kyoko Kagawa on the making of the film and its lasting importance
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Mark Le Fanu and two versions of the story on which the film is based: Ogai Mori’s 1915 “Sansho the Steward” and an earlier oral variation in written form
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More than eighty films into his career, Kenji Mizoguchi made this emotionally devastating . . . Read more »
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