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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD EAN: 0037429209325 Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC Label: Criterion Collection Languages: Manufacturer: Criterion Collection MPN: 20 Number Of Items: 2 Publisher: Criterion Collection Region Code: 1 Release Date: November 08, 2005 Running Time: 94 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Theatrical Release Date: September 07, 1954 Editorial Review: Amazon.com: Hailed by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu is an undisputed masterpiece of Japanese cinema, revealing greater depths of meaning and emotion with each successive viewing. Mizoguchi's exquisite "gender tragedy" is set during Japan's violent 16th-century civil wars, a historical context well-suited to the director's compassionate perspective on the plight of women and the foibles of men. The story focuses on two brothers, Genjuro (Masayuki Mori) and Tobei (Sakae Ozawa), whose dreams of glory (one as a wealthy potter, the other a would-be samurai) cause them to leave their wives for the promise of success in Kyoto. Both are led astray by their blind ambitions, and their wives suffer tragic fates in their absence, as Ugetsu evolves into a masterful mixture of brutal wartime realism and haunting ghost story. The way Mizoguchi weaves these elements so seamlessly together is what makes Ugetsu (masterfully derived from short stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant) so challenging and yet deeply rewarding as a timeless work of art. Featuring flawless performances by some of Japan's greatest actors (including Machiko Kyo, from Kurosawa's Rashomon), Ugetsu is essential viewing for any serious lover of film. --Jeff Shannon 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 Description: The great Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi's crowning achievement, set in sixteenth-century Japan, a period of bloody civil war, and focusing on an ambitious potter haunted by a beautiful ghost and a farmer who dreams of becoming a samurai. A classic com Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Mysterious Story!This is a great story of a man who dreams of being a great man of wealth and position in 15th century Japan. A man who is a farmer and a potter abandons his wife and child in war torn Japan to marry a woman with high status and who also turns out to be a ghost. He becomes a great samurai and wealthy, but what of his wife and child? Rating: - GreatUgetsu (Ugetsu monogatari), a 1953 film by Kenji Mizoguchi, which won the Venice Film Festival's top prize (the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction) that year, is one of the best films to ever deal with the subject of human desire, and not only the obvious sexual aspects of the emotion. While ostensibly it is labeled a ghost story, since its Japanese title means Tales Of The Pale And Silvery Moon After The Rain, the story is a complex one that hides behind its astonishingly simple narrative and ... Read More Rating: - UgetsuUgetsu - Criterion Collection Ugetsu is one of those films great directors have referred to over subsequent years. The film draws on the ancient Eastern tradition of seeking fulfillment in flights of fantasy, ignoring the deeper meaning and satisfaction of everyday life. Kenzo Mizoguchi is a brilliant director whose influence cannot be underestimated. Rating: - Magnificent fable of desire and attachmentThe first time I saw 'Ugetsu Monogatari' years ago, I wasn't so taken with it. I'm sure the overly soft, muddy VHS with barely translated and barely readable subtitles probably had a lot to do with my initial indifference. While the Criterion DVD shows some print damage at the reel ends, it still looks great overall - and I can finally see what all the fuss over this one has been about. This is a very fine film, and an absolutely gorgeous one. While the main protagonists are a pair of ... Read More Rating: - Mizoguchi--a true master of his craftDirector Kenji Mizoguchi was a perfectionist. On the set he would often demand hundreds of retakes. Plus his takes were often long in duration, his signature style known as "flowing scroll"--one shot, one scene. His high standards and methods of precision are never more evident than in Ugetsu. This story blends the supernatural world in with our earthly domain. There is a constant dreamlike, eerie atmosphere that is soothing and graceful. It begins to unfold in a poor rural 16th century ... Read More |
