Sansho the Bailiff

This Kenji Mizoguchi classic is indubitably great, but undeniably slow and lugubrious. It’s a lustrously beautiful black & white rendering of a folk tale of 11th century Japan, but seems to have two more direct impulses: the country’s recent defeat and suffering in war, and an attempt to capitalize on the international success of Kurosawa’s Rashomon. The same cinematographer contributes the same sun-dappled and gloomy-shadowed look, though Mizoguchi has his own style and story to tell. Two repeated refrains sum up the tale, “Without mercy man is a beast,” and “Life is torture.” An enlightened governor is exiled for siding with the peasants against the generals, and ten years later when his wife and son and daughter go to reunite with him, they are waylaid by bandits and sold into slavery. The son has his ups and downs of fortune, but as is usual the women bear the greater brunt of suffering. Painterly compositions and evocative camera movement make the film a pleasure to watch, even while the suffering is piled on. It’s now on a typically impeccable Criterion Collection DVD, and I happened to watch it on a brand-new HDTV, so it was dazzling to see while painful to contemplate. (1954, dvd, n.) *8*