Ugetsu monogatari
Tags: tragedy, psychedelic, murder, atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
In the farming village, Nakanogō, on the shore of Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province in the late 16th century, Genjurō, a potter, takes his wares to nearby Ōmizo. He is accompanied by Tōbei, who dreams of becoming a samurai. A respected sage tells Genjurō's wife Miyagi to warn her husband about seeking profit in times of upheaval, and to prepare for a probable attack on the village. Genjurō arrives with wide profits, but she asks him to stop. Genjurō nevertheless works long hours to finish his pottery. That night, Shibata Katsuie's army sweeps through Nakanogō, and Genjurō, Tōbei and their wives are uprooted. Genjurō collects his pottery from the kiln, and decides to take the pots to a different marketplace. As the two couples travel across a lake, a boat appears from thick fog. The sole passenger tells them he was attacked by pirates, warns them back to their homes, then dies. The two men decide to return their wives to the shore. Tōbei's wife Ohama refuses to go. Miyagi begs Genjurō not to leave her, but is left on the shore with their young son, Gen'ichi, clasped to her back. At market, Genjurō's pottery sells well. After taking his promised share of the profits, Tōbei runs off to buy samurai armor, and sneaks into the ranks of a clan of samurai. Lost from her companions, Ohama has wandered beyond Nagahama in her desperate search for Tōbei. She is raped by a group of soldiers.
Genjurō is visited by a noblewoman and her female servant, who order several pieces of pottery and tell him to take them to the Kutsuki mansion. Genjurō learns that Nobunaga's soldiers have attacked the manor and killed all who lived there, except Lady Wakasa and her servant. He also learns that Lady Wakasa's father haunts the manor. Genjurō is seduced by Lady Wakasa, and she convinces him to marry her. Meanwhile, Nakanogō is under attack. Miyagi and her son hide from soldiers and are found by an elderly woman who hurries them to safety. In the woods, several soldiers desperately search her for food. She fights with the soldiers and is stabbed. She collapses with her son still clutching her back.
Tōbei steals the severed head of a general, which he presents to the commander of the victorious side. He is rewarded with armor, a mount, and a retinue. Tōbei later rides into the marketplace on his new horse, eager to return home to show his wife. However, he visits a brothel and finds her working there as a prostitute. Tōbei promises to buy back her honor. Later, the two return to Nakanogō, Tōbei throwing his armor into a river along the way.
Genjurō meets a priest, who tells him to return to his loved ones or certain death awaits him. When Genjurō mentions the noblewoman, the priest reveals that the noblewoman is dead and must be exorcised, and then invites Genjurō to his home where he paints Buddhist prayers on his body. Genjurō returns to the Kutsuki mansion. He admits that he is married, has a child and wishes to return home. Lady Wakasa will not let him go. She and her servant admit they are spirits, returned to this world so that Lady Wakasa, who was slain before she knew love, could experience its joys. They tell him to wash away the Buddhist symbols. Genjurō reaches for a sword, throws himself out of the manor, and passes out. The next day, he is awakened by soldiers. They accuse him of stealing the sword, but he denies it, saying it is from the Kutsuki mansion. The soldiers laugh at him, saying the Kutsuki mansion was burned down over a month ago. Genjurō arises and finds the mansion he has lived in is nothing more than a pile of burnt wood. The soldiers confiscate his money, but because Shibata's army burned down the prison, they leave Genjurō in the rubble. He returns home by foot, searching for his wife.
Miyagi, delighted to see him, will not let him tell of his terrible mistake. Genjurō holds his sleeping son in his arms, and eventually lies down to sleep. The next morning, Genjurō wakes to the village chief knocking on his door. He is surprised to see Genjurō home, and expresses concern. He explains that he has been caring for Genjurō's son, and that the boy must have come to his old home in the middle of the night. Genjurō calls for Miyagi. The neighbor asks if Genjurō is dreaming, as his wife is dead. Miyagi's spirit tells Genjurō: "I am always with you", while he continues on pottery, and their son offers food to her.

Review: The closing scene is one of such deeply-felt compassion and understanding that it is almost frightening; it prefigures in a way the stunning and more personal close of the subsequent Mizoguchi film "Sansho the Baliff".On a lighter level, it is an amusingly sly allegory of the actual history of Japan for the 20 or so years prior to 1953, where in the end the women, embittered (or dead) as a result of their men's quixotic quest for military glory or war-profiteering, entreat them to give up their misguided and destructive dreams, settle down, and get back to their real responsibilities.Which they did.Originally available on LaserDisc..
The movie starts out pretty uncomfortably, two peasants in 16th century Japan who dream of richness and glory so blindly, they can't even hear the pretty straight-forward protests of their loving wives who try to convince them that their happiness is fine at home.
When one, a pottery smith, makes a small bundle selling his wares, they decide to make a much larger batch together and become rich.Forced out of their homes by an approaching war and uncertain where to go, they take their wares to a thriving market place, where the second peasant's ambition to be a samurai divides them and causes all four characters, the two peasants and their wives, to be separated, all fending for themselves amongst the war and various classes differently.At this point the film reverses itself and instead of being a pretty skin-deep, tragic bud of greed, it blooms into a beautiful and haunting tale of obsession and illusion.
The two main stories of the peasants and their wives are opposite only in their imaged realism, where one peasant falls completely under the curse of an enchanting ghost and the other lies and steals his way to fame, only both of them are eventually knocked down from their own hubris and forced to finally awaken to what their wives have said all along.It's quite exquisite, this movie, with its long takes and its lack of the usual constructs that make up messages of obsession and greed.
Suffice it to say that I recommend this film wholeheartedly to anyone looking for cinematic poetry (though not, probably, to those who, misled by its being set during the Japanese Civil Wars, expect an action film).Perhaps the most striking thing about the film is the camera-work; on a first viewing one is scarcely aware of it much of the time, but the camera is in constant motion, emblematic of the restlessness which pervades not only the era and the central characters but, by implication, all of human life (in this regard, it's a very Buddhist film).
Ugetsu, based on a popular "fairy tale" in the Japanese folk tradition, is perhaps the greatest "ghost story" on film.
In the beginning of the springtime in the period of the Japanese Civil Wars of the Sixteenth Century in Lake Biwa in the Province of Omi, the family man farmer and craftsman Genjurô (Masayuki Mori) travels to Nagahama to sell his wares and makes a small fortune.
This supernatural story is very well constructed in a historic context of the Japanese Civil Wars of the Sengoku period, with two family dramas caused by the blindness of greed.
we can analysis the idea of Japanese ghost film via 2 aspect of the film.Firstly, while Genjuro was selling pottery in the market, he was been order by Lady Wakasa and its nurse maid to send the good to their mansion personally, which was the starting point of ghostly love relationship.By the hand of prestige cinema photographer, Kuzo Miyagawa, the mystic atmosphere, the trembling music of sanmise, the ghostly voice of men grudging, gives the mansion an appeal of a haunted mansion.
which above all explores the art of Japanese traditional beauty.although it is an black and white film, but Kuzo Miyagawa create an color of bewitch ghostly character on Lady Wakasa.The very motive for the existence of Lady wakasa was to have a taste of love, as she was kill before she can understand what love is, after resurrect by the nursemaid, she have become and spirits that looking for the ideal man to love.
The second aspect for Genjuro associate with spirits was at the end part of the movie, while He push open the cripple door of his home, he saw an empty house, yet after the camera return an image of the room, Miyagi, Genjuro's wife appear, who was setting beside the stove alone tailoring clothes, and waiting for his husband to eat and change into comfy kimono, Genjuro feel extremely tire after all the events therefore he quickly falls asleep, next morning, when the villager master realize he is return went into his home and explain the tragic of her wife.
In the end the loss of what was important all along becomes apparent, and a message of humility becomes the films point.Though it is not nearly as accessible a film as Kurosawa's period pieces of the same time, Ugetsu succeeds on a level that they do not.
"Ugetsu" main themes, I believe, are the submission of women on feudal Japan - the transformation of the lives of the wifes of the two pottery dealers is treated very handsomely, each one striving to lead a decent life after being abandoned by their husbands, but failing in the end.
But a film handled with the elegance and competence of someone who knows about more than filmmaking; who just happens to be able to express himself in film, and so can posit us inside the film in richer ways than simply cinematic.What I mean is this: on the surface this is one of the narratives on bad karma the Japanese were so fond of sharing with themselves, an older story from the late 18th century dressed up in film material.
The story is set during a civil war, where a farmer lives happily with his wife and son, as well as a friend who dreams of leaving his impoverished state to become a samurai.
After finding some success, exploiting the war to make a grand profit, their greed brings them away from their wives: one into realizing his samurai ambitions, the other to the home of a pale beauty.Much has been said of the film's visual splendor.
Genjuro's journey is the main one and the heart of the movie, with Tobei's darkly comical journey as much more of a side story.and one can't talk about Ugetsu without mention of it's ending.
'Ugetsu' is a Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi based on stories in Ueda Akinari's book titled Ugetsu Monogatari.
Tōbei ends up seeking out Samurai soldiers leaving his wife Ohama alone and helpless during chaotic wartime.Along with 'Rashomon', 'Ugetsu' is considered by many critics to be the film that opened doors for Japanese cinema in the western world and gave the cinema in Japan a global exposure.
Like 'Rashomon', this film was also based on Japanese folk tales, but Mizoguchi's humanist filmmaking made it relevant for the 1950s and its relevance hasn't waned at all in the last 50 years.
Although 'Ugetsu' is set in 16th century Japan during the Japanese Civil War, for me it clearly is an allegory for Japanese society during WWII and the allegory here is a lit bit more overt and obvious than the same in 'Rashomon'.This can surely be seen as a feminist film.
The film is also a commentary on the disappearance of Buddhist ideals and principals in modern Japanese society.Along with Mizoguchi's style of storytelling, one can't help but admire the skill of his camera work.
Its messages are those of knowing your place, not extending your reach, avoiding the temptations of glory and flesh, the safety of home and most importantly the fact that sometimes the past and the afterlife are not yet ready to leave this world.It's a multilayered story, focusing mostly on the husbands of the two families, as they travel to a distant marketplace in the midst of war in order to sell their pottery.
It seems ironic to think that over fifty years ago, a mere eight years after the end of WWII, Mizoguchi could so skillfully debunk the Japanese male psyche and 'Yamato spirit'; yet in 2007 we have the Governor of Tokyo scripting films about the glory of the kamikaze and Japan's crusade of Asian liberation.
Miyagi (Kinuyo Tinaka) is the wife of a clay-potter and mother of their little baby during civil wars in 16th century Japan, and they get torn away from each other as her husband (Rashomon's Masayuki Mori) tries to sell his- to him precious and valuable- wares in the city, keeping her away from (potential) harm.
Ohama (Mitsuko Mito) is the wife of a peasant Tobei (Eitaro Ozawa, possibly my favorite of the male performances) who's only ambition is to be a samurai, to the point of foolish abandon of everything including her.While the two wives end up estranged from their husbands, Lady Wakasa (one of Japan's truly great actors in general Machiko Kyo) invites the potter to her abode, where the temptations overwhelm him and upon her insistence he takes up with her as a "new" husband to her.
It comes before a certain sad twist, but before it Genjuro has finally reunited with Miyagi, and as he sleeps Mizoguchi just stays on her for a minute or so, not for anything specifically for the story, but somehow this little moment of serenity- perhaps a dream or perhaps now- really struck me; few directors would think to do this unusual move.Ugetsu is also, aside from it putting in some spooky elements not quite like kabuki, is a great story of people in conflict, with themselves, each other, and how the women show the side of strength &/or weakness and how it ends up influencing the men around them.
Weird if alluring title aside this was one fine film by classic Japanese movie-maker Mizoguchi.The main characters of this story set in medieval rural Japan are 2 families: the potter Genjuro's and his neighbor Tobei's.
The cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Yojimbo) serves up some very striking visuals, very notably when the families are in the boat traveling along the river islands over the silent fog-covered water, and later in scenes of Genjuro's dalliances with the mysterious lady Wasaka, where the shots spliced with such surgical precision as to appear seamless.Ugetsu definitely deserves to be seen by all film buffs..
When this ghost story set in Japan's medieval era won the top prize at the Venice film festival in 1953, it showed the rest of the world that Rashomon was no fluke, and that something extraordinary was happening in Japanese cinema.
Today we can see that Japanese movies during the 1950s are one of the highlights of the history of cinema, with directors like Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi and Naruse actively working (sometimes making several movies a year) as well as slightly lesser accomplished directors (Ichikawa, Masumura, Kobayashi, Kinagasa or Oshima and Imamura just starting their respective careers)Ugetsu was widely regarded as among the best films ever made during the 1960s and 1970s.
One can weep with sadness at the outcome of the film, when one notices that the woman of Genjuro was only a ghost, but one can also simply cry for joy at the idea that one has just seen such a beautiful movie..
Ugetsu (1953)The Japanese tradition of ghost stories always seems to tie them into nature, and so here the fogs over the lake and the house in the woods lead to the appearance of figures from another time.
But it would be equally hard to imagine all this beautiful filming without the enchanting, and humanly moving, plot.It's a kind of masterpiece that some people will want to watch five times over, and others will find a bit slow.
One of the greatest of all Japanese films, this makes many Top 10 lists of the greatest films of all time.Genjuro (Masayuki Mori), a potter, and his brother Tobei (Eitaro Ozawa), a farmer, are seeking fame and fortune, or fortune and fame as the names are listed.The lake scene is not to be missed.
The film -- which feels like an imaginative Japanese re-interpretation of both western and Shingeki theatrical traditions -- is grounded in socio-political commentary and also ethereally hallucinogenic.Starting as a story of the inevitable corruptibility of two success-driven men and the different paths they take to achieve their dreams in an opportunistic, profit-driven, Hobbesian world of self-interest, the film expands into an allegory on servitude and oppressiveness / art and fantasy/ love and life as conceived with a childlike wonder and awe."The value of people and things" -- both in moral and non-moral terms -- is in constant fluctuation while the film glides from the fantastical and haunting, to the practical and daunting.
if she never met love is pain but if she finds but never unite is awesome ,Friend of Lady Wakasa try to unite him with her is also big emotional scene ,I watched this film too long ago and I remember this big.
Another Kenji Mizogushi's masterpiece a little inferior than Saikaku Ichidai Onna,settled in sixteen century two families living together in hard life in a province near the lake,Genjurô making handcraft ceramic products to sell in near village,and his farmer neighbor Tobei who intend to be a famous Samurai...when the war is broke out...against all advises they go to the village by boat,there they making money and Tobei and his wife split,and end up molested became a prostitute while Tobei looking for glory....Genjurô finds a beauty woman to marry living an easy life,but it don't seen to be what really is...anyway this old Japanese tale adapted in this movie is really astonishing and a true gem!!!.
Rather, with little money for movie making, directors had to do their best, minimizing costs and picking only the most promising scripts.It reads as a metaphor of ambition, quest for military glory, the damage caused and the price paid by protagonists and their surroundings.It is very well filmed with some good camera angles.
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.
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.
A beautiful film that takes place in Feudal Japan, 1 part ghost story, 2 parts the folly of greed..
"Ugetsu" (Japanese, 1953): This is going to sound weird, but much of this film, by Kenji Mizoguchi, reminded me of "The Wizard of Oz".
Director Kenji Mizoguchi's film is based on the 18th century supernatural stories in the Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain), and takes place during civil warfare in 16th century Japan.
There are some beautiful shots, such as a boat slowly disappearing into the mist and fog, as well as great moments, such as when the samurai reunites with his wife under very different circumstances (which I won't spoil), and the film is certainly well done and worth watching.
Kenji Mizoguchi's Epic period piece "Ugetsu" is a war movie, ghost story and love story all rolled into one, but really it is derived from several stories from Ueda Akinari's book of the same name.
A fantastic tale of war, love, family and ambition set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.Along with Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film "Rashomon", "Ugetsu" is credited with having popularized Japanese cinema in the West.
Kenji Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu monogatari" (which means "Tales of the Moon and Rain") is at once a Confucian morality tale, and also a likely look at the analogies between the effects of the 16th century feudal wars on the country and the effects of WWII on the country.
Mizoguchi and screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda adapted elements from all three tales to create something new and relevant.It follows the lives and desires of two couple who inhabit a small Japanese village during the 16th Century, when civil wars and ravaging bands of Samurai soldiered plundered the countryside near Lake Biwa in Omi province.
Truly one of the greatest and most stunning films of all time, Ugetsu (1953) is a Japanese masterpiece, a ghost story- and so much more.
Masterfully combining two stories from its source, Tales of Moonlight and Rain, Ugetsu is set during the Japanese Civil Wars and follows a farmer whose pottery takes off, sales booming in wartime.
Blending artfully and seamlessly the long passed history, the supernatural ghost stories, the elegiac poem, and not turning away from the scenes of brutal reality and violence, Mizoguchi created the film of serene elegance, mesmerizing beauty, and timeless humanity.
This Japanese film is one of many I found because it was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and it was rated very highly by critics, so I was looking forward to sitting down and watching it, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi (The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, Sansho Dayu).
Ugetsu and The Life of Oharu were the first films by Kenji Mizoguchi which proved his artistic talent to the western world.
Violence, glory and contempt of women are the carrying themes in these two intense stories.The film by Mizoguchi is aesthetically breathtakingly beautiful and it's full of poetic imagery: the scene at the lake, the breakfast on the lawn and the final shot where the camera raises above the entire village.
The film's original Japanese title is Ugetsu Monogatari which means "Tales of the Moon and Rain".