266. Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain or Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain) (1953)

Directed By Kenji Mizoguchi


Synopsis

A potter and his brother in law Tobei want to move on in life. The potter wants to make money selling his pots and Tobei wants to be a Samurai, this in the midst of the Japanese Civil War. The potter gets enthralled by a ghost, Tobei steals a general's head. The potter marries the ghost forgetting his wife and child, Tobei becomes a big Samurai forgetting his wife. The potter's wife is killed by soldiers, Tobei's wife is raped by soldiers and becomes a prostitute. The Potter gets exorcised and discovers the truth about his phantom life, Tobei discovers his wife has become a prostitute due to his neglect. The potter goes back home, Tobei goes back home abandoning the Samurai life. The potter finds a warm welcome by his wife and child, only to discover next morning that his wife has been dead for a while. He resumes his life while his wife talks reassuringly from beyond the grave.

Review

If there is an overriding feel to this film, it is one of a kind of creeping ambience that works in the back of your neck and in your stomach. It is one of the films that makes the most effective use of supernatural elements in its storytelling. The supernatural is particularly eerie because it is so natural, because it only slowly reveals itself as something else.

You know when you watch horror films that you always know what is going to happen and the protagonists seem stupid for going along into the haunted house. Well they could learn a lot from this, the supernatural is attractive because it looks attractive, not creepy. Only when the character is already enthralled do the creepy elements come into play. And then the ghosts have a story, they aren't cardboard monsters.

And then the film is directed to perfection, Mizoguchi's long takes are choreographed perfectly, the music adds to the whole ambience of the film. Japanese cinema just makes me love it more and more with each film we get. Still waiting for a not excellent one.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Ugetsu won the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival in 1953. The film has made multiple appearances in Sight and Sound magazine's top ten critics poll of the greatest movies ever made, which is held once every decade. In 2000, The Village Voice newspaper ranked Ugetsu at #29 on their list of the 100 best films of the 20th century.

Trailer, you'd better know some Japanese: