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DVD features
The Criterion Collection's high standards of scholarly excellence are on full display in the two-disc set of Ugetsu, packaged in an elegant slipcase reflecting the tonal beauty of the film itself, which has been fully restored with a high-definition digital transfer. The well-prepared commentary by critic/filmmaker Tony Rayns combines the astute observations of a serious cineaste (emphasizing a keen appreciation for Mizoguchi's long-take style, compositional meaning, and literary inspirations) with informative biographical and historical detail. In the 14-minute featurette "Two Worlds Intertwined," director Masahiro Shinoda discusses how Mizoguchi's career and films have had a lasting impact on himself and Japanese culture in general. Interviews with Tokuzo Tanaka (first assistant director on Ugetsu) and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa focus more specifically on anecdotal production history Mizoguchi's working methods, including the director's legendary perfectionism regarding painstaking details of props, costumes, and production design.
Disc 2 consists entirely of Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director, a 150-minute documentary from 1975. Though it occasionally gets bogged down in biographical minutia, the film provides a thoroughly comprehensive survey of Mizoguchi's career, including interviews with nearly all of Mizoguchi's primary collaborators. Director/interviewer Kaneto Shindo ultimately arrives at an emotionally devastating coup de grace when he informs the great actress Kinuyo Tanaka (star of The Life of Oharu and other Mizoguchi classics) that Mizoguchi had considered her "the love of his life." Tanaka's graceful response provides a moving appreciation of their artistic bond, which never evolved into romance. As we learn, the tragic irony of Mizoguchi's life is that he died in sadness and suffering, in 1956, just as he was entering a more hopeful and artistically revitalized period of middle age. After showing us all the locations that were important in Mizoguchi's life, the film closes with a blunt discovery of life's ethereal nature: The great director's final home was torn down and replaced with a gas station. The 72-page booklet that accompanies Ugestu contains a well-written appreciation of the film by critic Phillip Lopate. Also included are the three short stories that inspired Ugetsu, allowing readers to see how Mizoguchi and screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda masterfully combined elements of these unrelated stories to create one of the enduring classics of Japanese cinema. --Jeff Shannon
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 07 September, 1954 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Criterion Collection |
| MPAA RATING: | Unrated |
| FEATURES: | Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Adult Situations, Atmospheric, B&W, Crumbling Marriages, Deliberate, Drama, Eerie, Elegiac, Fantasy, Feature, Feature Film Drama, Feature Film-drama, Foreign, Foreign Film [Dub Or Subtitle], Ghost Stories, High Artistic Quality, High Historical Importance, Japan, Japanese, Lyrical |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 2 |
| UPC: | 037429209325 |
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Customer Reviews of Ugetsu - Criterion Collection
Ugetsu One of the great masterworks of Japanese cinema, "Ugetsu" is part ghost story, part wartime drama, and the two mix beautifully under Mizoguchi's cogent direction. In some ways, he links the suffering of women--murder, rape, destitution--to the selfish acts and desires of men, an unambiguously progressive theme in postwar Japan's reevaluation of tradition. "Ugetsu" benefits enormously from the presence of Kyo as a sensual apparition, as well as Kazuo Miyagawa's gliding camerawork. Film lovers will embrace this entrancing story of human longing.
A true classic from Mizoguchi
I watched the Criterion Collection DVD of Kenji Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu" a few nights ago. This may well be my favorite Asian film of all. It may be a film that deals with ghosts, but above all it's a film about humanity and the things that drive us. Set during the civil wars of 16th century Japan, it tells the tale two farmers (Genjuro and Tobei), their ambitions (one to be a potter, the other to become a samurai) and the terrible effect it has on their families.
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>The B&W picture looks very good - sharp with good contrast, and definitely better than I remember the Criterion LD looking. The cinematography is effective, the music alternately haunting and heart rending. I've not yet watched any of the interviews or the two and a half hour Mizoguchi documentary, but I look forward to it. I'm sure I'll get "Sansho the Bailiff" by Mizoguchi, as well.
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>In short, this film is a must see for anyone interested in Asian cinema, classic cinema or for anybody who has emotions and can feel.
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An Antti Keisala Comment: There's A Ghost In Every Mirror
I'm writing this comment in anticipation of Criterion's release of [[ASIN:B000NOK0H6 Sanshô dayû]], one of my all-time favourites. I live in Finland and found access to that film through the British Film Institute's VHS release, which, to my great frustration, broke a few years back. I've been waiting a Criterion release ever since.
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> The first sign of a reward was this, the "other" Mizoguchi everyone's talking about. And truly, what an experience. In this film every image is a mystery, each of them is just one branch in a tree of mysteries. If you're out for some beautiful imagery, this is worth recommending for that reason alone. I'm all for imagery, because our quest in cinema really has to do with them, and hopefully most of the time.
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> This isn't a new concept, just something that we all find when we plod on. My personal name for it is "visual narrative", a way in which the camera moves and reveals things, and what it reveals and does not. It's a narrative eye, a conscious camera that moves in a seemingly two-dimensional world by diving deep into other realities. By this I simply mean that while often cinema is perceived as having two layers, that of the story (or context) and that of the image. This is why I think some people find films such as Wong's [[ASIN:B00003CXUM In The Mood For Love]] and [[ASIN:B000BRBA8S 2046]], Tarkovsky's [[ASIN:6305257450 Andrei Rublev]] and Malick's [[ASIN:B00005PJ8T The Thin Red Line]] pretentious. For me this duality doesn't exist: these layers are organically one and the same, an idea that was introduced in literary theory by the Russian formalists almost a hundred years ago.
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> You could think of this film as having two gods, two narrative threads intertwining. The first is what we always associate with whatever Mizoguchi, the feminist story-telling device and deep sympathy. Ironically we find out in the documentary on the second disk that it was never Mizoguchi's intention to be a feminist film-maker. Yet the wonderful invention here comes from the other half of the story, which is about ghosts. Mizoguchi has segmented this in sotto voco throughout the whole narrative, mostly because the notion is already so strong. That is, we also have ghosts in the visual narrative, in every frame and beyond. These ghosts are figments of a visual space that I assume explicates itself when the visible narrative ("plot") advances, becomes errant, folds and becomes intrusive. Then these ghosts unleash and the big shift is how there ultimately should be nothing; how we see the woman beside the fireplace when she shouldn't be there - the illusion is so strong it remains.
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> The supernatural is presented in the story beautifully. This film dwells on both fronts unlike most Mizoguchi, whose films are so often rooted in grim reality. And I think it's the reason why the film turns out to be so beautifully captivating and as magical as it is. The packaging itself is beautiful, and also included is the two-hour mammoth documentary on Mizoguchi, which isn't only informative, but actually funny and interesting as it goes through his whole life. Also included is a book that includes two short stories that inspired the film (including Guy de Maupassant) and a writing from film critic Philip Lopate. A magical experience. If you have the chance or any interest, this wouldn't only completement Mizoguchi's "Sanshô", but Bergman's [[ASIN:6305174083 The Seventh Seal]]. Two wondrously mystic films. Lovingly recommended.
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>With best regards,
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