Sansho the Bailiff [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi Kenji Mizoguchi

Overview

Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece opens in 11th century Japan with an aristocratic woman named Tamaki traveling through the woods with her daughter Anju, son Zushio, and her maid. Through flashbacks, we learn that her husband, Taira Masauji, was a local governor who was exiled because of his honesty and integrity. Before he leaves, he gives his son an amulet of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, and tells him, "Without mercy, man is like a beast. Men are created equal, everyone is entitled to happiness." On their journey to reunite with their husband/father, they are ambushed by kidnappers, who sell the mother as a prostitute and the two children as slaves to the corrupt Sansho (Eitaro Shindo). As adults, Zushio (Yoshiaki Hanayagi) and his sister Anju (Kyoko Kagawa) continue to toil as servants. Anju learns that her mother has become a courtesan on the remote island of Sado. Though Zushio has become Sansho's most trusted and brutal aide, he manages to escape at Anju's behest. He finds sanctuary at a local monastery while Anju, looking to avoid the inevitably violent retribution, drowns herself in a lake. Seeking justice, Zushio petitions the chief advisor, a desperate act that usually results in imprisonment or death. Yet his pleas prove more successful than he ever dreamed. When he finally has the power to thwart evil Sansho and reunify his family, he learns that he is tragically too late.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/26/2013
UPC:	0715515102315
Original Release:	1954
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:04:00
Sales rank:	9,414

Special Features

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

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kinuyo Tanaka	Tamaki / Nakagimi
Yoshiaki Hanayagi	Zushio
Kyoko Kagawa	Anju,Actor,Ritsushi Kumotake
Masao Shimizu	Actor
Ken Mitsuda	Actor
Chieko Naniwa	Actor
Kikue Mori	Actor
Kazukimi Okuni	Actor
Yoko Kosono	Actor,Kohagi
Kimiko Tachibana	Actor
Ichiro Sugai	Actor,Justizminister
Masahiko Tsugawa	Actor
Naoki Fujiwara	Actor
Keiko Enami	Actor
Kanji Koshiba	Actor
Shinobu Araki	Actor
Reiko Kongo	Actor
Shozo Nambu	Actor
Eitarô Shindô	Sanshô dayû
Ryonosuke Azuma	Actor,Landlord
Akitake Kôno	Taro
Teruko Omi	Actor
Fumio Hayasaka	Composer
Kinshichi Kodera	Composer
Tamekichi Mochizuki	Composer
Teruko Ômi	Nakagimi
Bontarô Akemi	Kichiji
Kikue Môri	Priestess
Reiko Kongô	Shiono
Shôzô Nanbu	Masasue Taira
Saburô Date	Kimpei
Sumao Ishihara	Yakko
Ichirô Amano	Guard
Yukio Horikita	Jiro
Hachirô Ôkuni	Saburo Miyazaki
Jun Fujikawa	Kanamaru
Akiyoshi Kikuno	Guard

Technical Credits

Fuji Yahiro

Yoshikata Yoda

Kenji Mizoguchi	Director
Fuji Yahiro	Screenwriter
Yoshikata Yoda	Screenwriter
Masaichi Nagata	Producer

Editorial Reviews

On its French release in 1960, Sansho the Bailiff was ranked by Cahiers du cinéma as the best film of the year, topping such classics as Breathless, L'avventura, and Psycho. Critics were struck by the film's gorgeous photography, elegant camerawork, and exotic settings and by Kenji Mizoguchi's signature use of imagery that quietly evokes a spiritual transcendence above the suffering of the material world. Unlike Akira Kurosawa's frequent use of close-ups and fast-paced editing, Mizoguchi, here as elsewhere, keeps his camera distant and his takes long, resulting in a contemplative style in which the characters' suffering and pain seem vivid, yet small compared with the immutability of the landscape. The result is a film that is thoroughly engaging up to its devastating finale. Though it was initially more popular in the West than in Japan, this masterpiece has since been widely recognized as one of Mizoguchi's most beautiful works.

All Movie Guide - Jonathan Crow