Wordiezett
So much average
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
WILLIAM FLANIGAN
Viewed on DVD. A photo play version of an ancient folk tale from when commercial slavery was an important contributor to regional Japanese economies (the so-called "Dark Ages" of some 1,200 years ago). The tale is tied to an estate manager/overseer (or "bailiff") by the name of "Sansho." The estate is based on slave labor and Sansho is the slave master with life and death power (but torture rather than death is preferred by Sansho as a cost inhibitor). The traditional tale title is used by the director, but the film is not focused on the bailiff character (who plays an in effect supporting role). Direction and cinematography (black and white) are outstanding and seem "joined at the hip" (although the old narrow-screen format is present on the DVD version). Acting is a bit uneven with the adult lead actor (Yoshiaki Hanayagi) tending to overact for the camera (as if in a silent movie or on the stage). Period costumes and mannerism (such as the staging of court protocols and processions) look authentic (judging from other source materials) and the sets are most impressive. The film score is a major contributor to the style and enjoyment of this movie. It is one of the best (it not the best) composed for any Japanese movie from the 20th Century. Solos of traditional instruments are seamless interwoven into modern orchestral arrangements. Leif motifs and themes are used for characters and scenes/locations. The score provides the acoustical glue that helps to hold this movie together and is one of the two contributors to the film's most impressive dynamics (the other contributor being camera movements). WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
treywillwest
This is one of the most canonically celebrated films that I had, until a couple of days ago, never seen. It fully lives up to the hype- this is a profound and moving work of the highest aesthetic accomplishment. I really like Mizuguchi's "contemporary" films about women in post-war Japan. But his period pieces are far more visually sumptuous. As with Ugetsu, the landscapes in this film are stunning: comparable and clearly indebted to museum-worthy Japanese scroll painting. The first quarter or so of the film is a series of flashbacks of a genuinely benevolent, both personally and politically, patriarch recalled from a feminine present of compromise and scarcity. A truly horrifying, if unforgettably beautiful, kidnapping on a lake transports us into a reality in which hope, and memory, seem proscribed. From this space of subjection will come the world most familiar to us- one in which there are, indeed, acts of altruistic self-destruction, and even of effective decency, if motivated primarily by revenge. Ultimately peace and justice, represented by the Father seen only in flashback, seem like fantasies in the minds of the tormented. Our world is for suffering.
poe-48833
"Set in an era when mankind had not yet awakened as human beings," SANSHO THE BALIFF is more about the victimization of the Poor than anything else- especially a widowed woman and her two children: she ends up being kidnapped and sold into prostitution while the children are sold as slave laborers to the dastardly Sansho (whose screen time is kept to a minimum; he's the Catalyst here, but little more). Mizogushi's carefully measured pace makes for compelling Cinema and, as in other films, one of his chief concerns seems to be the mistreatment of the Downtrodden. It's interesting to find that even in ancient fairy tales, Republicanomics was responsible for making lives miserable.
JolinKnight
None of the famous old Japanese movies do not express the miserable old society. So does this one. The high score of this film can totally prove that democracy is deeply rooted among the people. A decent family can be refuges the next day due to their honesty, such a dark world can be found today as well. But it is more obvious and common in the ancient era. Apparently the movie aims to deride the contemporary by quoting from history. It is really a hard time for people in Japan after the World War Two. Families are broken, industries need to start from zero, the whole country were living in misery. That is why the Japanese movies produced in that time mostly making people feel dark inside. This is a national defect, they only feel better when they see there are others living in a harder and more miserable life than them. It is a little abnormal isn't it? I would like to think like that Japanese usually cheer themselves up by misery sadness failure or hatred. I have to admit these thing are necessary during a down period but these are not the most helpful things to bring you back to a normal person. They instead maybe turn you into a ruthless asshole. My opinion is the positive thinking is the solution whenever we are down and whatever makes us down. The motivation helping you step out of dark should be something bright and hopeful rather than something like turning sadness or hared into endeavours. Otherwise the moment you achieve your goal you will lose yourself again. Because when you are chasing happiness there is always no ending while aiming to resent or get rid of misery can be easily achieved and include potential danger. The way to get out of misery is finding your happiness and satisfaction.I have watched a lot of old Japanese movies, I don't like most of them although they are very famous or high marked. But I still can get a lot different thinking about life and human from them. So I admit they are good movies giving people a punch.
