This film is amazing, starting with the credits, which are given in excellent calligraphy over Japanese lacquer patterns. The entire movie retains the elegance and perfection of detail of the opening titles. The story is about two married couples:Genjuro(Masayuki Mori) and Miyari (Kinuyo Tanaka) who have a child, and the other couple,Tobei (Sakae Ozawa) and Genich (Ikio Sawamura).
Genjuro and Tobei have great ambition, the first to become rich through the sale of his glazed ceramics, which require a lot of effort, including keeping an oven well heated for long periods of time, and the second wants to be a great samurai. Both have to work hard as peasants to make a living and support their families. Amazingly, while some soldiers raid the village and they all run to the woods for refuge, the oven keeps on heating the ceramics and when they come back they have an entire shipment ready to take to the big town for sale.
This proves to be a mixed blessing, but they are all overjoyed about having made it alive and having the goods to sell, so they pack everything and go to the lake, find a boat and jump into the trip that will change their lives, the turning point that rarely in life is as clear cut as in this beautiful scene, filled with mist rising from the water and foreboding. They encounter what looks like an empty boat, but which has the dying boatman still able to warn them against pirates. The women consider this a terrible omen and want to turn back and resume their lives, but the men insist on pushing forward. In the end there is a compromise and Miyari stays behind with the child, waving a long good by from the shore while the other three stay on the boat .
Once arrived in the town their business does very well, Tobei can pursue his dream and buys an armor and spear and goes o his way to become a samurai, in the process he loses his wife who is looking to stop him, and she is raped by marauding soldiers. They will meet again later when he has become the great samurai of his dream and she a prostitute in the House of Pleasure where he stops by to celebrate with his soldiers on the way back home. Both realize then the folly of Tobei's dream and that their greatest treasure is their love for each other.
Genjuro's fate is more complicated: While selling his wares he is visited by the spirit of Lady Wasaka ( Machiko Kyô)accompanied by her maid, she gives one of the most riveting performances I have ever seen in Japanese cinema. Her expressiveness communicates even minor subtle changes of mood or feeling even while wearing the mask-like make up. They have both come back from the other world in order for Lady Wasaka to meet a man and experience the love she was denied by her fate. Genjuro has no idea that he is meeting a ghost but something about their gesturing, their pace, the way they talk gives away that these are not the regular pair of aristocratic lady with maid looking to buy new ceramics.
Their love story develops in the country home of the lady, and the lyrical scenes of love whether in the interiors, the beautiful garden, or a hot spring are all filmed in such a degree of perfection and in such perfect settings that it's no wonder Genjuro thinks he is truly in paradise. This is far from the truth of his situation, which he learns by accident when he is in town one day, from a priest that offers to exorcise him. The acting of each one of the characters in this story are all great, particularly Genjuro and Lady Wasaka, who make up a very intense love story, but the outstanding feature is the perfection of the director's plan, the seamless development of plot, and the incredible beauty of every shot, even peripheral vision is aesthetically perfect, at all times, like in a Kabuki set. This may also come form the director's long experience in silent film, but it is nevertheless an extraordinary achievement that won the movie an important price at the Venice Film Festival that year. In my opinion it is one of the top 3 Japanese movies and one of the top films of all time.
Genjuro and Tobei have great ambition, the first to become rich through the sale of his glazed ceramics, which require a lot of effort, including keeping an oven well heated for long periods of time, and the second wants to be a great samurai. Both have to work hard as peasants to make a living and support their families. Amazingly, while some soldiers raid the village and they all run to the woods for refuge, the oven keeps on heating the ceramics and when they come back they have an entire shipment ready to take to the big town for sale.
This proves to be a mixed blessing, but they are all overjoyed about having made it alive and having the goods to sell, so they pack everything and go to the lake, find a boat and jump into the trip that will change their lives, the turning point that rarely in life is as clear cut as in this beautiful scene, filled with mist rising from the water and foreboding. They encounter what looks like an empty boat, but which has the dying boatman still able to warn them against pirates. The women consider this a terrible omen and want to turn back and resume their lives, but the men insist on pushing forward. In the end there is a compromise and Miyari stays behind with the child, waving a long good by from the shore while the other three stay on the boat .
Once arrived in the town their business does very well, Tobei can pursue his dream and buys an armor and spear and goes o his way to become a samurai, in the process he loses his wife who is looking to stop him, and she is raped by marauding soldiers. They will meet again later when he has become the great samurai of his dream and she a prostitute in the House of Pleasure where he stops by to celebrate with his soldiers on the way back home. Both realize then the folly of Tobei's dream and that their greatest treasure is their love for each other.
Genjuro's fate is more complicated: While selling his wares he is visited by the spirit of Lady Wasaka ( Machiko Kyô)accompanied by her maid, she gives one of the most riveting performances I have ever seen in Japanese cinema. Her expressiveness communicates even minor subtle changes of mood or feeling even while wearing the mask-like make up. They have both come back from the other world in order for Lady Wasaka to meet a man and experience the love she was denied by her fate. Genjuro has no idea that he is meeting a ghost but something about their gesturing, their pace, the way they talk gives away that these are not the regular pair of aristocratic lady with maid looking to buy new ceramics.
Their love story develops in the country home of the lady, and the lyrical scenes of love whether in the interiors, the beautiful garden, or a hot spring are all filmed in such a degree of perfection and in such perfect settings that it's no wonder Genjuro thinks he is truly in paradise. This is far from the truth of his situation, which he learns by accident when he is in town one day, from a priest that offers to exorcise him. The acting of each one of the characters in this story are all great, particularly Genjuro and Lady Wasaka, who make up a very intense love story, but the outstanding feature is the perfection of the director's plan, the seamless development of plot, and the incredible beauty of every shot, even peripheral vision is aesthetically perfect, at all times, like in a Kabuki set. This may also come form the director's long experience in silent film, but it is nevertheless an extraordinary achievement that won the movie an important price at the Venice Film Festival that year. In my opinion it is one of the top 3 Japanese movies and one of the top films of all time.