#309: MIZOGUCHI, Kenji: Ugetsu (1953)

MIZOGUCHI, Kenji (Japan)

Ugetsu [1953]

Spine #309
DVD

"Quite simply one of the greatest of filmmakers," said Jean-Luc Godard of Kenji Mizoguchi. And Ugetsu, a ghost story like no other, is surely the Japanese director's supreme achievement. Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss — with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real — is one of the most beautiful films ever made.

97 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

in Japanese

1:33:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2005

Director/Writers

Original story by Akinari Ueda.

Screenplay by Matsutarô Kawaguchi  and Yoshikata Yoda.

Kenji Mizoguchi was 55 when he directed Ugetsu.

Other Mizoguchi films in the Collection:

Eclipse Series 13: Osaka Elegy (1936)
Eclipse Series 13: Sisters Of The Gion (1936)
#832: The Story Of The Last Chrysanthemum (1939)
Eclipse Series 13: Women Of The Night (1948)
#664: The Life Of Oharu (1952)
#386: Sansho The Bailiff (1954)
#949: A Story From Chikamatsu (1954)
Eclipse Series 13: Street Of Shame (1956)

Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu — usually considered the Big Three of Japanese cinema during its golden age (1940-65) — are all well-represented in the Collection.

Mizoguchi’s reputation as a “woman’s director” may stem from the fact that the strong influences in his early life were female. His father basically sold his sister, Suzu, into geishadom, and his mother died when he was 17. Suzu took care of young Kenji, and later helped him find work.

In the early ‘20s, a prostitute he was living with slashed him on his back with a razor. Almost all of his early films from the ‘20s and ‘30s are lost.

Two films in 1936 helped to secure his reputation as a creative force in the industry: Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion. Both films concern the problems facing women.

During the war, he was pressured to make The 47 Ronin (1941), as propaganda — but it’s actually an excellent, thrilling film.

During the ‘50s, Mizoguchi made some of his finest films; several of which are perhaps the finest in cinematic history: The Life of Oharu (1952); Ugetsu, and Sansho the Bailiff (1954).

Yoda wrote Mizoguchi’s screenplays, beginning with Osaka Elegy. Not credited is Guy de Maupassant, who contributed the idea which became the basis for part of Tōbei (Eitarô Ozawa)’s subplot. [Ozawa is great as Hori in Kurosawa’s underrated Scandal (1950)].

The Film

A great film does so many things at once. It captures your attention from Shot One. You notice that the compositions are beautiful. Composition forwards meaning. Soon you’re hooked by the great acting, the sets, the long takes, and the sheer beauty of the stream of black and white images.

The stars (Machiko Kyô [Lady Wakasa], Mitsuko Mito [Ohama], Kinuyo Tanaka [Miyagi], Masayuki Mori [Genjurô], and Ozawa) are all spectacular. Their characters are so well-drawn, and Mizoguchi’s loving care with the smallest details of sets, lighting and camera makes them shimmer in their clarity.

The score by Fumio Hayasaka — who revolutionized Japanese film music — is particularly fine. (Tamekichi Mochizuki and Ichirô Saitô are also credited). It uses mostly traditional Japanese instruments except for the scenes with Lady Wakasa, where a Western harp is used to express fantasia.

The Gagaku music played under the opening credits, for example, sets a strong mood for the upcoming magic, particularly the sound of the Shō.

Mizoguchi liked long takes and long lenses, using both for strong cinematic mise-en-scène, and he was a perfectionist; just look how he prepares a scene (0:06:49) with a foreground, middle and background — all moving around quite naturally. The fades and dissolves create seamless transitions from scene to scene, and Mizoguchi keeps things moving briskly, switching back and forth between the stories of both Genjurô  and Tōbei.

Mizoguchi uses 16 dissolves and 15 fades in Ugetsu. The longest scene in the film is 9:25; most are somewhere between three and five minutes. Occasionally, he separates a scene of mere seconds (Dissolve 3). Here is a list of all the transitional devices Mizoguchi uses in this film:

• 0:00:42 FTB 1 after Daiei logo [0:11]
• 0:00:53 Dissolve 1 after title card [1:29]
• 0:02:22 FTB 2 after director’s credit. A few title cards crediting the original stories [0:20]
• 0:02:42 Dissolve 2. The opening scene: Genjurô and Tōbei are leaving their wives to sell Genjurô’s pottery [2:10]
• 0:04:52 Dissolve 3. Pushing the cart on a path. (Note all the extras in the mid- and background, populating the frame beautifully [0:17]
• 0:05:09 FTB 3. Genjurô returns home with money. Tōbei is trying to become a samurai [2:50]
• 0:07:59 Dissolve 4. Back to Genjurô’s story. Tōbei returns home [2:46]
• 0:10:45 FTB 4. Genjurô making pottery. (Look at how Mizoguchi shows us Genjurô’s all-consuming greed, as he yells at his hungry son, Genichi [Ichisaburo Sawamura, his sole IMDb credit!], while Miyagi turns the wheel ... a series of cuts, slowly leading up to a CU of Miyagi. [2:07]
• 0:12:52 Dissolve 5. The men are sleeping. The women are stoking the kiln. Shibata’s army is nearby, and the villagers are scattering. [4:42]
• 0:17:34 Dissolve 6. The two families are camped out in the woods. Genjurô, against advice, returns home to tend to his kiln. Miyagi, Tōbei, and Ohama follow and they discover that the pots are all perfectly baked. They quickly load the pottery. [5:12]
• 0:22:46 Dissolve 7 to possibly one of the most beautiful shots of the film! A composition of such intensity, urgency ... they are loading the pottery onto a boat on Lake Biwa (studio set) with reeds in the left background, and a misty white void on the right. [0:26]
• 0:23:12 FTB 5. Kurosawa worshipped Mizoguchi. So his fascination with the image of a horse emerging from a mist (see: Throne of Blood [1957]), seems copied from what Mizoguchi does here, with the boat floating out of the white mist. After their encounter with the man who was attacked by pirates, the men decide to return to shore to drop off the women and Genichi. [4:52]
• 0:28:04 Dissolve 8. Beautiful shot of Miyagi and Genichi on the shore, mid-background and centered, with the boat in the foreground, Genjurô far left, Tōbei far right, and Ohama (she decided to stay with her husband) in the center. Mizoguchi lingers on alternating CUs of the mother and child on the shore, with the other three in the boat. [1:32]
• 0:29:36 FTB 6. Nice high shot of a busy marketplace. The entire frame is jam-packed with detail. Lady Wakasa and her lady-in-waiting, Ukon (Kikue Môri) are admiring Genjurô’s pottery, which they buy and instruct him to deliver it all to Kutsuki Manor. In the meantime, Tōbei has run off to buy armor and spear, so he can become a samurai. Ohama searches for him. [3:43]
• 0:33:19 Dissolve 9. Ohama, alone, still searching. She is raped by soldiers. Alone, she screams at her missing husband. [3:12]
• 0:36:31 FTB 7. Genjurô wants to buy an expensive kimono. Suddenly, the score turns Western: harp, celesta and strings. As if to confirm the fantasy, suddenly Miyagi appears,  fawning over the kimonos. Genjurô awakens from the fantasy, only to hear the voice of Ukon. He turns, and the camera faces her and Lady Wakasa.
• “We thought you might need a guide to find the way.”
• Mizoguchi spends a moment on Genjurô’s confused face before cutting to a CU of Lady Wasaka — Kyô is radiant [2:41]
• 0:39:12 Dissolve 10. A long scene. Genjurô enters Kutsuki Manor. Wasaka seduces him. Her father speaks from the grave (Mizoguchi brings down the light level). He awakes and is pronounced a husband. [15:23]
• 0:54:35 Is this a cut or a dissolve? It’s very subtle, in any case, and merely serves to bridge the previous scene to this one. The camera approaches slowly, almost stealthily. Genjurô is bathing, his back to the camera. Wasaka faces us:
• “You seem to distrust me. You think I’m an enchantress, don’t you?” (she washes his back) ... the camera pulls closer ... “but you’re mine now. (he pulls her closer) ... from now on you must devote your entire life to me.” Wasaka begins to undress, moving out of frame, right. Cut to Genjurô. The camera remains on his ecstatic face, even as we hear the plop of Wasaka entering the tub, laughing, as Genjurô moves out of frame, right. As if to give the lovers some privacy, the camera slowly pans to the left, over rocks and pebbles. [1:28]
• 0:55:58 Dissolve 11. The two shots merge beautifully, as we gradually recognize the new shot as being carefully raked, like a Japanese garden.
• The camera pans and stops on a museum-worthy painting on film. Mid-foreground, Wakasa and Genjurô are having a picnic on a blanket on the grass — she is singing — while Mizoguchi completes the picture with a pair of barren trees on the right (the larger looking like it’s threatening the smaller), the lake beyond that and the mountains even more distant. The couple make love. [1:20]
• 0:57:18 FTB 8. Miyagi and Genichi are hiding from hungry soldiers. An old woman gives them food and helps them escape. [1:47]
• 0:59:05 FTB 9. But they are attacked on the road, and Miyagi is stabbed with a spear. [1:43]
• 1:00:48 FTB 10. Tōbei is following two samurai. As he hides, he watches as the younger samurai ritually beheads the older one, a general. Tōbei kills the samurai, and steals the head. [1:43]
• 1:02:45 Dissolve 12. Tōbei presents the severed head to the warlord and receives his reward. He is finally a samurai. [0:57]
• 1:03:42 FTB 11. Followed by his newly-appointed vassals, Tōbei sits atop his horse, looking quite satisfied. Prostitutes call out to the men, and they ask Tōbei to stop. At first, he refuses, saying he wants to return home to show Ohama his success. But they persuade him and they stop at the brothel. The men are all having fun. Suddenly, a ruckus ensues when a customer tries to leave without paying. The prostitute is Ohama. Tōbei stares in disbelief.
• This is where Mizoguchi shows his feminism. While, Tōbei stares, Ohama pours her heart out. Certainly, he has made it big — but because of him, she is trapped at the very bottom of society. [6:17]
• 1:09:59 FTB 12. Overhead shot of some stores. Genjurô is buying something, but when he mentions Kutsuki Manor, the shop owner becomes panicked and tells him to take everything and leave. He meets a monk who tells him he has death written on his face. When he hears the name Lady Wakasa, he insists on exorcising her ghost from Genjurô before he departs. [3:18]
• 1:13:17 Dissolve 13. Lady Wakasa discovers that Sanskrit characters are written on Genjurô’s back, and flips out. (btw, check out a similar story in Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan [1965]).
• An important scene: while Genjurô writhes in agony on the floor, Ukon describes their true situation. As she speaks, the camera moves around — from a CU of the tortured Wakasa to Genjurô’s back — and the emotional weight of her words are felt through the images. Genjurô grabs a sword and, swinging it wildly, escapes the Manor. A CU on Genjurô’s face pulls back and reveals a group of men who accuse him of stealing the sword in his possession. When he’s told that Kutsuki Manor was burned down and the clan wiped out, it is still a few moments until Genjurô sees the charred wood for himself. [9:25]
• 1:22:42 FTB 13. Genjurô is going home.
• Mizoguchi created something so simple, yet so beautiful, to set up this final scene of the ghost story: Genjurô walks through his home, seemingly completely deserted. He then exits a door. The camera stays inside as it pans across the room — tracking an unseen Genjurô — until he again arrives at the front door. This time, he walks in to see Miyagi tending the cooking pot. Their reunion is ecstatic. He holds his son, Genichi, puts him back to bed, then falls asleep himself besides his young son. [5:25]
• 1:28:07 Dissolve 14. Morning. Miyagi is awake; Genjurô and Genichi still asleep. There is a diffused, soft light permeating the frame. / cut / outside the house it is sunny ... the village chief wakes up Genjurô and has to tell him that Miyagi was actually killed during the war.
• Genjurô’s reaction is so profound that Mizoguchi films him with his head turned away from the camera. No facial reaction is needed here. [4:28]
• 1:32:35 FTB 14. Tōbei throws his samurai gear into the river. A soothing, long pan shot covers their weary conversation along the path. [0:43]
• 1:33:18 FTB 15. Genjurô praying at Miyagi’s grave. Her ghostly voice comes to him to tell him that his “delusion has come to an end.” The camera pulls back to reveal Genichi, playing nearby. [1:00]
• 1:34:18 Dissolve 15. Genjurô is throwing a pot, and Miyagi’s voice — less ghostly now, more comforting and intimate — speaks to him as she “watches” him work:
• “What a beautiful shape! Helping you spin the wheel is my greatest pleasure. How I long to see it when it’s baked! The firewood is cut and ready. The rampaging soldiers are gone. So make your wonderful pottery in peace” (here, a CU of the wheel). [0:41]
• 1:34:59 Dissolve 16. Genjurô is feeding the kiln. Genichi is nearby / cut / Tōbei and Ohama are working in the garden. She brings Genichi some food, which he offers to his mother’s grave. The final crane shot rises high above the farmers — hard at work — especially the women.

Film Rating (0-60):

58

The Extras

Disc One

The Booklet

Seventy-two page booklet featuring film critic Phillip Lopate and three short stories that influenced Mizoguchi in making the film

The stories make for fantastic reading — either before or after one views the film.

Commentary

by renowned film critic, filmmaker, and festival programmer Tony Rayns

Rayns is always interesting to listen to. He knows his stuff. He begins by pointing out Mizoguchi’s probable intent on linking the historical drama with the recent past — the horrors of war, etc.

He provides a ton of interesting biographical detail.

For example, Mizoguchi — known for making films about women’s problems — who was an important personage in the Directors Guild — somehow objected to Tanaka directed her first film (Love Letter [1953], starring Mori, unavailable in the U.S.)

Video interview 1

Two Worlds Intertwined, a new, 14-minute appreciation of Ugetsu by director Masahiro Shinoda

Shinoda talks about how Ugetsu changed his ideas about cinema.

“So we can say Mizoguchi was a supreme realist while also being a supreme fantasist.”

He can be funny — like comparing Ozu’s ankle-level camera to Mizoguchi:

“If a woman wearing a miniskirt were to stand up in sight of Ozu’s low-angle camera, he’d be arrested for indecency.”

Video interview 2

Process and Production, a new, 20-minute video interview with Tokuzô Tanaka, first assistant director on Ugetsu. Tanaka tells a wonderful story about Mizoguchi and Yoda:

“ ... they weren’t really friends. That was because Mizoguchi tormented Yoda relentlessly. He didn’t let up until he’d wrung out of Yoda everything Yoda could give ... with Ugetsu, Yoda had to rewrite the script five times. But even taken, Mizoguchi made further changes to the script ...”

He then shows us CUs of the script — big chunks of dialogue crossed out, overwritten — always a thrill with a film like this one!

“And just like he was with Yoda, he was relentless with his actors. He didn’t stop until he’d wrung everything he could out of the actor. So sometimes even an incompetent, second-rate actor would give an amazing performance that would surprise us.”

Tanaka confirms that Mizoguchi was in love with Kinuyo Tanaka.

Video interview 3

Ten-minute video interview with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, from 1992, in which he discusses:

• how both he and Mizoguchi were passionate about the comparison between e-maki scrolls (emakimono) and motion pictures;
• all the challenges they faced making the great scene (FTB 13, above [1:22:42]) when Genjurô walks around the house;
• their mutual love of crane shots (70%, he says!)
• a lunch with Mori, who couldn’t quite figure out Mizoguchi wanted from him in a particular scene:
• “How does he want me to do it?”
• I said, “you have a chest of drawers inside you from which to pull out what you need, so start from the top drawer.”
• He said, “I’ve already rummaged through all the drawers.”
• how he got sick and had to just watch television. The first thing he noticed was how obviously well-made (and expensive) the commercials were!
• “I thought, ‘I wish they’d use that money to make a feature.’”

Theatrical trailers

Disc 2

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975), a comprehensive, 150-minute documentary by filmmaker Kanetô Shindo, with new and improved subtitles

Shindo’s devotion to Mizoguchi is unparalleled ... he seems to have interviewed every person Mizoguchi ever knew. There is much attention paid to his feelings for Kinuyo Tanaka; there is also much detail about even the earliest films of Mizoguchi — most of which are lost.

Shindo’s film is a true filmic autobiography. No stone is left unturned. 

Extras Rating (0-40):

37

58 + 37 =

95

By Director

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