FROM THE VAULT: 1953
Ugetsu
Starring: Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, Ikio Sawamura
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
The film: Although not as well known in the west as Akira Kurosawa or even Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956) remains one of the most revered directors in Japan. Despite successfully riding the wave of international acclaim following the west's introduction to Japanese cinema with Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950), about 90 per cent of his films were made before that and were never released overseas. Also, unlike his two contemporaries, Mizoguchi has been largely neglected by foreign video companies.
However, a handful of his films are available on DVD, with by far the best in terms of presentation being this Criterion edition of Ugetsu.
Known in Japan as Ugetsu Monogatari - loosely translated as Tales of Moonlight and Rain - the film tells two interconnected stories (one spectral, one worldly), both taken from short works by Akinari Ueda. The main plot follows Genjuro the potter (Masayuki Mori) as he leaves his wife and child to sell his wares in another town. While there he falls under the spell of a ghost (Machiko Kyo, right), which delays his return home. His younger brother, meanwhile, and thanks to a stroke of luck, becomes a celebrated warrior, and also neglects his wife, who is raped and then falls into prostitution. For one man there's a tragic end, for the other a redemption of sorts.