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Sansho the Bailiff (Criterion Collection) (Restored / Remastered)
- Starring: Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo
- Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
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Description
Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece opens in 11th-century Japan with an aristocratic woman Tamaki traveling through the woods with her daughter Anju, son Zushio, and maid. Through flashbacks, we learn that her husband, Taira no Masauji, was a local governor who was exiled because of his honesty and integrity. Before he leaves, he gives his son an amulet of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, and tells him, "Without mercy, man is like a beast. Men are created equal, everyone is entitled to happiness." On their journey to reunite with their husband/father, they are ambushed by kidnappers, who sell the mother as a prostitute and the two children as slaves to the corrupt Sansho (Eitaro Shindo). As adults, Zushio (Yoshiaki Hanayagi) and his sister Anju (Kyoko Kagawa) continue to toil as servants. Anju learns that her mother has become a courtesan on remote Sado-island. Though Zushio became Sansho's most trusted and most brutal aide; he manages to escape at Anju's behest. He finds sanctuary at a local monastery while Anju, looking to avoid the inevitably violent retribution, drowns herself in a lake. Seeking justice, Zushio petitions the Prime Minister, a desperate act that usually results in imprisonment or death. Yet his pleas prove more successful than he ever dreamed. When he finally has the power to thwart evil Sansho and reunify his family, he learns that he is tragically too late. Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Features
- Genre: Drama
- Category: Period Film, Reunion Films
- Theme: Obsessive Quests, Righting the Wronged, Sibling Relationships
- Release Date: May 22, 2007
- Studio: Criterion
- Lead Actors: Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Ichiro Sugai
- Supporting Actors: Kikue Mori, Ryosuke Kagawa, Masahiko Tsugawa, Chieko Naniwa, Ken Mitsuda, Masao Shimizu, Akitake Kono
- Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
- Run Time: 2 hr 4 min
- Language: Japanese
- Subtitle Language: English
- Format: DVD
Additional Information
- DPCI: 246-01-7020
- ASIN: B002IT9ZFM
- Catalog #: 11363120
- Item can not be gift wrapped.
Shipping & Policies
- You may return this item to any Target store.Opens in New Window
- Shipping & Delivery InformationOpens in New Window
- Estimated Ship Dimensions : 7.67 inches length x 6.08 inches width x 0.64 inches height
- Estimated Ship Weight: 0.59 pound.
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Expert Reviews
On its French release in 1960, Sansho the Bailiff was ranked by Cahiers du cinéma as the best film of the year, topping such classics as Breathless, L'avventura, and Psycho. Critics were struck by the film's gorgeous photography, elegant camerawork, and exotic settings and by Kenji Mizoguchi's signature use of imagery that quietly evokes a spiritual transcendence above the suffering of the material world. Unlike Akira Kurosawa's frequent use of close-ups and fast-paced editing, Mizoguchi, here as elsewhere, keeps his camera distant and his takes long, resulting in a contemplative style in which the characters' suffering and pain seem vivid, yet small compared with the immutability of the landscape. The result is a film that is thoroughly engaging up to its devastating finale. Though it was initially more popular in the West than in Japan, this masterpiece has since been widely recognized as one of Mizoguchi's most beautiful works. Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
