#386: MIZOGUCHI, Kenji: Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

MIZOGUCHI, Kenji (Japan)

Sansho the Bailiff [1954]

Spine #386
DVD

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi's dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema's greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.

124 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

in Japanese

1:33:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2007

Director/Writers

Kenji Mizoguchi was 56 when he directed Sansho the Bailiff.
Screenplay by Fuji Yahiro and Yoshikata Yoda.
From the story Sansho Dayu by Ogai Mori.

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)
#309: Ugetsu (1953)
#949: A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)
Eclipse Series 13: Street of Shame (1956)

The Film

This Mizoguchi masterpiece is certain to stir a deep emotional response in the viewer.

Based on a short story from 1915, it takes place in the 11th century — the Heian period.

Father (Masao Shimizu) — a virtuous governor in an era where cruelty was preferred — is banished because of his unwanted kindnesses.

His wife, Tamaki (Kinuyo Tanaka) and children (Zushio [Naoki Fujima/Masahiko Kato/Yoshiaki Hanayagi] and Anju [Keiko Enami/Kyoko Kagawa]) are sent to live with her parents. On their journey, they are cruelly tricked by a Shinto priestess (Kikue Mori) and the kids are separated from Mother and sold into slavery. Mother is forced into prostitution on the island of Sado.

The kids are ultimately sold to the brutal Sansho (Eitaro Shindo) where they are made to do backbreaking labor. However, Sansho's son, Taro (Akitake Kono), is sympathetic to the plight of the slaves, and he ultimately escapes and becomes a monk.

Zushio becomes inured to the violence (he complicitly brands an old man's forehead) and when he is ordered to take the critically-ill Namiji (Kimiko Tachibana) to the forest and leave her there to die, Anju — who has accompanied him — spontaneously urges Zushio to escape.

After his noble identity becomes known, he is given the post of governor of Tango province, and he uses his authority to issue a proclamation outlawing slavery.

Sansho's men destroy the abolition signposts, and Zushio goes to the manor to confront his tormentor, having him arrested. He sadly learns of Anju's suicide, and after resigning from his post, he sets off to try to find his mother on Sado.

He finds her — now blind and crippled — and their reunion is satisfying only in the sense that they both know he has followed his father's teachings:

"Forgive me, Mother"

"What is there to forgive? Without knowing what you have done, I kmow that it is because you have listened to your father's words that we are able, at last, to be here together,"

"Without mercy, man is like a beast. Even if you are hard on yourself, be merciful to others."

**

Cinematography

Kazuo Miyagawa — one of the greatest DPs of all time. A few examples of his exquisite compositions:

Filmic punctuation — the dissolve

Mizoguchi exclusively uses the dissolve as filmic punctuation. (There are, of course, straight cuts as well, but the dissolve is preferred.)

• 0:02:50 credits over ancient standing stones > the mother and children travelling (Zushio, be careful) ...
• 0:04:07 Zushio asking about his father, running > the image dissolves (flashback); the younger Zushio running into the manor, the peasants rushing in, his mother pulls him inside ,,,
• 0:06:42 Mother sitting > (flashforward) Mother filling a bowl with water from a stream ...
• 0:07:40 Mother lifting bowl to her mouth to drink > (flashback) Father doing the same ...
• 0:08:30 Father's advisor: You cannot compare us to the peasants. You fool! > Father speaking to Mother: Tamaki. Take the children to your parents' home in Iwashiro ...
• 0:10:08 Father has given the Kwannon amulet to Zushio > (flashforward) the image dissolves on the amulet Zusiho is carrying ...
• 0:10:58 Mother is thinking about Father > (flashback) Mother is putting on Father's shoes ...
• 0:12:11 The family is leaving > Father on horseback surrounded by the unruly peasants and the clan samurai ...
• 0:12:43 Father on horseback > later, with retinue ...
• 0:12:58 same > (flashforward) Mother ...
• 0:14:51 Travelling > tall reeds ...
• 0:15:33 Reeds > building the shelter ...
• 0:21:26 The servant returns; Mother: This priestess here has graciously offered to lodge us secretly for the night. > inside; I can never thank you enough for your kindness ...
• 0:22:47 Mother is thanking the priestess > the next morning; I made all the arrangements while you were asleep ...
• 0:25:38 The servant has drowned after the scuffle > dissolve fades to black > Zushio and Anju are in captivity ...
• 0:27:03 The kids are in a boat, having been sold to Sansho > Sansho's manor ...
• 0:29:58 Namiji is helping Anju > slaves are returning to camp with logs and wood ...
• 0:41:20 Taro leaves through the gate > long shot of Taro walking away ..,.
• 0:41:33 > the camera rests on the ancient stones while we get an English subtitle: AFTER TEN YEARS, THE YOUNG CHILDREN HAVE DEVELOPED INTO STURY YOUNG ADULTS IN SPITE OF THEIR LONG HARDSHIP AND MISERY. THE WINTER FINDS ZUSHIO ALIAS MUTSU, 23 YEARS OLD, ANJU, KNOWN AS SHINOBU, IS 18. > dissolve, FTB ...
• 0:42:00 Zushio and Anju asleep; the alarm is sounding ...
• 0:50:13 Anju is crying, having heard Kohagi sing Tamaki's sad song > Sado; Tamaki is trying to escape ...
• 0:50:58 > she is brought inside where her tendon is sliced ...
• 0:51:51 > she is carried outside on another woman's back ...
• 0:53:41 > Zushio and Anju working, still hearing the song — Zushio, how I long for you! ...
• 0:55:59 Zushio and Anju > dissolve FTB; Zushio is pounding something when he is ordered to dump Namiji in the mountains ...
• 0:57:19 Zushio is carrying Namiji on his back; he leaves the camp with Anju > in the mountains ...
• 1:19:15 Zushio and Taro > FTB; Zushio in Kyoto ...
• 1:19:58 Zushio scampering down a trail > at the court of Fujiwara ...
• 1:23:48 Zushio is locked up > in jail, despairing ...
• 1:24:06 > the retainers come to fetch him to meeet Fujiwara ...
• 1:24:52 > leading him forward ...
• 1:28:10 Fujiwara gives Zushio the governorship > he is now the governor; Masamichi Taira is created a peer of the Junior Grade of the Fifth Rank ...
• 1:30:04 seated before Fujiwara > retainers awaiting Zushio at his father's tomb ...
• 1:31:48 tomb > Zushio on horseback, meeting Norimura ...
• 1:32:52 drinking sake > meeting his retainers ...
• 1:36:24 retainers leaving to find Shinobu > at Sansho's; there is no such girl here ...
• 1:37:40 Sansho > villagers looking at a signpost ...
• 1:38:57 Sansho ordering the signposts to be destroyed > his henchmen doing that ...
• 1:39:25 > on Sado; What does it say? // I can't read ...
• 1:39:49 > a signpost being hammered into the ground; Sansho's men destroying it ...
• 1:41:04 Zushio preparing to go to Sansho's > on horseback ...
• 1:46:05 Zushio asking about Anju > at the lake where she drowned ...
• 1:46:39 > the freed slaves dancing ...
• 1:47:31 > Zushio seated at his manor; Norimura: Sansho's house is on fire, sir ...
• 1:49:26 Zushio hands in his resignation > on the beach in Sado ...
• 1:50:36 > looking for Nakagimi ...
• 1:53:37 > looking out over the sea (where Nakagimi sang her sad song) ...

The Music

Fumio Hayasaka — who died way too young at age 41 from tuberculosis — composed 12 scores for Kurosawa, nine for Mizoguchi, seven for Naruse and many others. Sansho is surely one of his more remarkable efforts. Here is a breakdown of the music, detailing Hayasaka's use of traditional Japanese instruments in combination with the Western orchestra ...

• 0:00:20 Credits:
• drums, strings, glockenspiel
• 0:02:10 Intertitle, over ancient standing stones:
• oboe, exotic, mournful
• 0:02:54 Opening shot of family travelling
• strings with a shamisen softly in the background
• 
• 0:06:37 Mother, seated
• strings, shamisen
• 0:08:59 Father, speaking to Zushio
• strings
• 0:10:10 Zushio/amulet
• shamisen enters, more prominent
• 0:10:48 [cont.]
• fue enters, prominent
• 
• 0:12:11 Father on horseback surrounded by the unruly peasants and the clan samurai
• Solo fue, intense
• 0:13:01 Mother
• fue recedes; strings, celesta, harp
• 0:16:16 the children are helping build the shelter
• French horn, strings, celesta, harp; faster tempo
• 0:21:00 the servant returns
• solo drum; foreboding
• 0:21:30 inside the priestress dwelling
• fue; two-note motif + drum
• 0:24:34 Mother realizes they're being separated
• fue, high-pitched
• 0:33:18 Taro with the kids
• Strings
• 0:35:30 Tell me your father's words again
• Strings
• 0:38:56 The girls begin their dance
• fue, drum, koto, voice

• 0:41:20 As Taro leaves, all the above drop out except the fue.
• 0:41:33 Camera fixed on the ancient standing stones
• mournful bassoon, drum, percussion
• 0:50:29 Nakagimi is trying to escape
• fue, with drone accompaniment
• 0:51:41 They cut her tendon
• Solo shamisen
• 0:51:50 Carrying Nakagimi outside on her back
• shamisen + shakuhachi (lots of air) + strings (very soft)
• 
  
  
  
  
• 0:57:24 Taking Namiji to the mountains
• harp, strings, oboe
• 1:05:49 Zushio puts Namiji on his back
• harp, orchestra
• 1:11:06 Anju's suicide
• Mother's distant song, soft harp
• 1:12:36 - 1:27:16 no score!
• 1:27:16 Zushio with Fujiwara
• orchestra, Japanese flutes, bells, shō
• 1:31:48 Zushio on horseback
• add shamisen
• 1:36:10 Norimura leaves to fetch Anju
• strings, celesta
• 1:36:57 - 1:46:07
• no score!
• 1:46:07  Zushio looking at the pond where Anju died
• Very soft harp
• 1:49:36 Zushio at Sado
• solo shakuhachi (airy)
• 1:53:48 Zushio at the cape, finding his mother
• shakuhachi [cont.]
• 2:01:11 Mother is asking for Anju
• strings, harp, two fues / full orchestra, fue prominent

Also, prominent throughout the score, although difficult to identify section by section, is the shō:

The Extras

The Booklet

Eighty-four page booklet featuring an essay by Mark Le Fanu, and the stories Sansho the Steward by Ogai Mori, and An Account of the Life of the Deity of Mount Iwaki.

Le Fanu:

"Why should Anju offer herself up so nobly? ... her plan — thought up in an instant — is the way she wants it ... we have to bear in mind that the whole affair takes place in a minute, and right up to the moment it is happening, no one knows what the outcome will be. Does Anju believe her decision will mean certain death for her? Probably she does. Yet, in another way, such a fate is not so terrible after all, for sooner or later, all of them — her brother and father and mother — will meet up with her again in paradise. So the open gate, and the beckoning lake, are just confirmations from 'on high' of the rightness and blessedness of her thinking. The decision once made, there is a wonderful triumph — a wonderful happiness — in her bearing. Indeed, the two or three shots that show Anju's descent down the wooded hillside and into the water are surely among the most beauatiful ever committed to celluloid: editing, framing, timing, shot duration are perfection itself. Seldom in film are we privileged to witness such concentrated, preternatural stillness. A delicate ellipsis spares us the sight of Anju's actual moment of immersion. In compensation, the ripples that spread out from the center of the pond become the ripples of memory itself, and an emblem of the film's profound thoughtfulness."

**

Mizoguchi was fairly faithful to Mori's short story. A few differences:

• As the story begins, Anju is older; she is 14, Zushio is 12 ...
• Rather than a Shinto priestess, they are betrayed by a sailor named Yamoka Tayu ...
• Sansho names the children Fern and Lily ...
• Nineteen yeares ago, Taro — Sansho's oldest son, aged 16 — had witnessed his father branding a captive after attempting to escape, and had wandered away and was never seen again ...
• Both kids dreamed that they were branded by Sansho ...
• Anju schemed to be allowed to cut firewood with Zushio, having planned his escape ...
• Zushio's fate is transformed by Morozane (chief advisor to the emperor) who borrows the Zushio's icon to pray for his sick daughter.

Commentary

By Japanese-literature professor Jeffrey Angles.

Angles is mostly concerned with detailing the differences and similarities between the film and the earlier written and oral versions of the story.

His attention to the history of the period is both informative and enlightening.

Video interviews

With critic Tadao Sato, assistant director Tokuzō Tanaka, and legendary actress Kagawa on the making of the film and its lasting importance.

Great interviews. All three mention Mizoguchi's insistence on how to create memorable performances:

"Are you reflecting? Reflect, please!"

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