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Ugetsu Monogatari

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	Ugetsu Movie Review
		Set in Japan during the tumultuous sixteenth century – when the country was torn apart by civil wars – the film follows what happens to two couples, living the simple life in a small village, who get swept up in the insanity and lose their moorings to reality.
		All that comes before this point – pillaging, poverty, hopelessness – is just precursor, though, as the men are each presented with the ability to live out their dreams, opportunities they quickly snatch, leaving their loved ones to fend for themselves in a lawless and ghost-plagued land.
		Ugetsu also shares Kurosawa’s love of deadly symmetries and is a marvel of the ways in which multiple storylines – the desperate and abandoned wives, the happy and then cursed husbands – can be smartly woven together from disparate angles.
	www.contactmusic.com /new/film.nsf/reviews/ugetsu (637 words)

	Mizoguchi: Ugetsu \| Reverse Shot
		Five years after its release, no less a budding authority than Jean-Luc Godard would, in focusing on Ugetsu, rank the director “on equal terms with Griffith, Eisenstein, and Renoir.” In short, Mizoguchi and Ugetsu’s immortality are assured; to write of either from a newly illuminating angle is not.
		Ugetsu’s last fifteen minutes are positively, yes, transcendent in this regard: upon the disgrace of learning Lady Wakasa’s true nature Genjuro returns to his village to find the family he left behind.
		The first time he passes through the hut the place is empty, but after circling the exterior he enters again, this time to the sight of Miyagi tending to a fire and cooking food for her Ulysses.
	www.reverseshot.com /article/mizoguchi_ugetsu (698 words)

	The DVD Journal \| Quick Reviews: Ugetsu: The Criterion Collection
		Set in civil war-wracked 16th century Japan, Ugetsu follows the divergent fates of two couples, neighbors in a small village which awaits the inevitable incursion of enemy soldiers.
		Ugetsu is clearly a product of the postwar Japanese mindset, and both Genjuro and Tobei are meant to represent different aspects of the madness which gripped the nation during the 1930s and 1940s.
		The Criterion Collection presents Ugetsu in its original Academy ratio (1.33:1), and the digitally remastered image is, for the most part, spectacularly smooth and free of defect.
	www.dvdjournal.com /quickreviews/u/ugetsu_cc.q.shtml (836 words)

	Ugetsu Monogatari
		Ugetsu monogatari was not the first Kenji Mizoguchi film to be shown in the West, but it was the first to reveal him to the West as a major artist.
		From the radical feminist protest of his earlier films to the celebration of woman as self-sacrificer, redeemer, and mother in Ugetsu is certainly a large and disconcerting jump.
		If on one level Ugetsu tends to reinforce traditional myths of woman, on another it remains true to the radical spirit of Mizoguchi's earlier Marxist-feminist principles.
	www.filmreference.com /Films-Tw-Vi/Ugetsu-Monogatari.html (1432 words)

	Ugetsu (1953)
		Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi's haunting masterpiece, is a movie that blends lilting fable, gritty realism, and elegiac ghost story so seamlessly that you can feel its cumulative power moving right through you—like the spirits within.
		Greedy and selfishly ambitious, husbands (and brothers) Genjuro and Tobei subject their wives to intense suffering once they begin to follow their dreams of wealth and acclaim.
		Ugetsu's dramatic pull isn't necessarily through morality tale (though that's strong throughout) and an explication of the patriarchy, but its potent mixture of dream and reality.
	www.reel.com /movie.asp?MID=2425&buy=open&PID=10120746&Tab=reviews&CID=18 (717 words)

	Cineaste: Current Issue
		In Ugetsu, Tobei displays an unquenchable ambition to become a samurai, and he finally succeeds by stealing the head of a beheaded general, only to find that his abandoned wife has become a prostitute.
		Although Tobei may be Genjuro's brother, their relationship is not as clear or as vital as the two couples that are torn apart by the invasion of the village by warring factions of soldiers.
		Scriptwriter Yoshikata Yoda confirms (in Shindo's documentary) that Mizoguchi did not intend Ugetsu to be an antiwar film, although the chaotic situation that surrounds the characters, linking their various storylines, is certainly evocative of the previous fifteen years of Japanese history.
	www.cineaste.com /ugetsu.htm (2567 words)

	UGETSU : Encyclopedia Entry
		Ugetsu is a ghost story, in which a peasant craftsman in Medieval Japan is undone by his greed.
		Typical of Mizoguchi's films, Ugetsu is politically oriented toward the ways women suffer at the hands of men; also typically, it features stunning visual arrangements and meticulously orchestrated long takes, as well as obfuscating elements like fog and silence.
		On November 8, 2005, Ugetsu became available for the first time on Region 1 DVD when The Criterion Collection released a 2-disc edition of the film, which includes numerous special features such as a 150-minute documentary on Mizoguchi directed by Kaneto Shindo.
	www.bibleocean.com /OmniDefinition/Ugetsu (266 words)

	Ugetsu
		It is perhaps Mizoguchi's most celebrated film, and is regarded by many critics as one of the seminal masterworks of Japanese cinema.
		Ugetsu is ostensibly a Ghost story, in which a peasant craftsman in Medieval Japan is undone by his greed.
		On November 8, 2005, Ugetsu became available for the first time on Region 1 DVD when The Criterion Collection released a 2-disc edition of the film, which included numerous special features as well as a 150-minute documentary on Mizoguchi.
	www.ufaqs.com /wiki/en/ug/Ugetsu.htm (240 words)

	EI > DVD > Ugetsu (1953)
		Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 masterpiece Ugetsu is one of the rare pieces of celluloid that straddles the line between real and fantasy, projecting a vision of commingled tangible life and the fog-draped afterlife that haunts the senses.
		Ugetsu is a morality play that sneaks up on the viewer with its grand message: existence is impermanent so it is best to cherish the people closest to you rather than the trappings of material existence.
		Ugetsu is brimming with extensive extras on its two discs, the likes of which have been seen in very few other DVD releases.
	www.einsiders.com /reviews/dvd/show_dvd.php?review_dvd=578 (1327 words)

	www.TheGline.com: DVD of the Week: (11-12-05): Ugetsu
		The shimmering beauty of this movie, one of the greatest to come from Japan and certainly one of the greatest ever shot in fl-and-white, was virtually invisible for decades no thanks to the wretched condition of the prints that were screened at festivals and used for the earlier home video transfers.
		Ugetsu was made in 1953 and borrows equally from the devices of the silent and sound eras, since it is almost always better to show an image in a movie when a line of dialogue might be used instead.
		Ugetsu is probably his most widely-known and –respected film, but he directed dozens of others that have as much to savor.
	www.thegline.com /dvd-of-the-week/2005/11-12-2005.htm (1636 words)

	Dvd Shop >> Ugetsu - Criterion Collection
		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 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.
		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.
	www.advancingwomen.com /dvdshop/?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=B000BB14I0 (1538 words)

	DVD review of Ugetsu (Special Edition) - DVDTOWN.com
		We see this sensibility at play again in the central sequence of "Ugetsu." Genjuro (Masayuki Mori), our main protagonist, is a potter who brings his wares to the big city in hopes of scoring a major sale.
		Japan, as depicted in "Ugetsu," is a country ravaged by civil war, and the violence has so brutally marred the land that the border between this world and the afterlife has become a decidedly blurry one.
		One of the great pleasures (one of many) in "Ugetsu" is the naturalistic approach Mizoguchi takes to his various ghosts and spirits.
	www.dvdtown.com /review/ugetsucriterion/17335/3241 (978 words)

	Ugetsu : filmcritic.com Movie Review
		Set in Japan during the tumultuous sixteenth century – when the country was torn apart by civil wars – the film follows what happens to two couples, living the simple life in a small village, who get swept up in the insanity and lose their moorings to reality.
		All that comes before this point – pillaging, poverty, hopelessness – is just precursor, though, as the men are each presented with the ability to live out their dreams, opportunities they quickly snatch, leaving their loved ones to fend for themselves in a lawless and ghost-plagued land.
		Ugetsu also shares Kurosawa’s love of deadly symmetries and is a marvel of the ways in which multiple storylines – the desperate and abandoned wives, the happy and then cursed husbands – can be smartly woven together from disparate angles.
	filmcritic.com /misc/emporium.nsf/VideoHome/0DF3C802738DD19E082570AE005A2B40/?OpenDocument (721 words)

	Ugetsu Movie Review at Hollywood Video
		Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi's haunting masterpiece, is a movie that blends lilting fable, gritty realism, and elegiac ghost story so seamlessly that you can feel its cumulative power moving right through you—like the spirits within.
		Greedy and selfishly ambitious, husbands (and brothers) Genjuro and Tobei subject their wives to intense suffering once they begin to follow their dreams of wealth and acclaim.
		Ugetsu's dramatic pull isn't necessarily through morality tale (though that's strong throughout) and an explication of the patriarchy, but its potent mixture of dream and reality.
	www.hollywoodvideo.com /movies/movie.aspx?MID=2425&LF=MRM&LF=MRP (942 words)

	Ugetsu Monogatari - MJSimpson.co.uk
		The title is usually given in its Japanese form because it's not really translatable: 'monogatari' just means story/stories but 'ugetsu' is usually translated as 'pale and mysterious moon after the rain' which is a pretty specific thing to have a word for.
		The film is based on two stories by Akinari Ueda which probably explains why the Tobei/Ohama tale and the Genjuro/Miyagi tale don't really have any connection other than the couples being friends and neighbours, the story wobbling rather uncertainly between all four characters.
		Ugetsu Monogatari was one of several films he made primarily to be shown at the Venice Film Festival.
	www.mjsimpson.co.uk /reviews/ugetsumonogatari.html (1500 words)

	Anime Expo - Ugetsu Hakua - 2005
		While he makes his living as an artist, Ugetsu has a chance to express his commercially unused designs through his self-published work.
		Director Ohata Koichi was the person who brought Ugetsu onto the Burst Angel staff, and Ugetsu said he's been pleasantly surprised that the series brought him to the U.S. for Anime Expo.
		Ugetsu said he got E-mails of support from overseas fans shortly after the series was released in Japan, and he was glad to learn that those people liked his work.
	www.fansview.com /2005/animeexpo/070105c.htm (352 words)

	Kenji Mizoguchi
		Kenji Mizoguchi, considered to be one of the most compassionate directors of women, paints a caustic and harsh existence of a male dominated society in Life of Oharu.
		In contrast to the hopeful, life-affirming conclusions of Ugetsu and Sansho Dayu, the tone of Life of Oharu is bleak and unforgiving.
		The abandoned Ohama, in a vain attempt to find her husband, encounters a band of pillaging mercenaries, and is violated.
	www.filmref.com /directors/dirpages/mizoguchi.html (4147 words)

	Cellar Live - the Finest in Live Jazz Recordings (Site not responding. Last check: )
		UGETSU is one such band that I have had the pleasure experiencing this with.
		With a band so chalk full of talent it was an obvious choice to record, but with a focus on compositions from the band members rather than trying to duplicate and expand on material that already holds quite a legacy.
		UGETSU was firing on all cylinders on these two nights and SNAFU is another addition to the wonderful performances caught on tape that make up the Cellar Live catalog.
	www.cellarlive.com /ugetsu_live_at_cellar.cfm (302 words)

	Sound And Vision Magazine - DVDs: Japanese Cinema
		Ugetsu (1953), a melodrama that follows the fates of two couples whose lives are sent in four different directions by a marauding army, has a uniquely Japanese sensibility.
		Ran is filled with walls of yellow silk and seas of red flags, while Ugetsu's exceedingly deep-focused compositions display a breathtaking range of grays, with textures distinct from front to back.
		Ugetsu’s sound is a clear mono, while Ran’s stereo track sends troops clattering across the wide soundstage.
	www.soundandvisionmag.com /moviereviews/1247/dvds-japanese-cinema.html (301 words)

	Cinemarati Blog » The Way of the World (Site not responding. Last check: )
		But Ugetsu, at its core, explores what Sontag once called “the anguish of the family,” what Lopate once referred to as Mizoguchi’s concerns with “women’s struggles,” and what might be seen as the invariable consequences of ambition, greed, and glory.
		Ugetsu is certainly one of the supreme masterpieces of cinema, and a personal favorite of mine.
		Ugetsu is the lucky one, and I’m bumping it up my queue at this time (it was timed to reach me at about the end of April, but now I’m more in a hurry, heh).
	www.cinemarati.org /index.php/archives/the-way-of-the-world (2869 words)

	Metroactive Movies \| 'Ugetsu'
		IF YOU were Japanese, I wouldn't have to explain who Kinuyo Tanaka (1909-77) is. Not having that honor, I couldn't place her name until I looked it up.
		Ugetsu is illuminated by Japan's realization of having been duped by criminal pride, by the hopes of glory and gain.
		This moment of high tragedy is mitigated in the legendary final shot: the camera rising like the sun over the image of the earth being tended, nourished with our beloved dead.
	www.metroactive.com /papers/metro/01.26.05/ugetsu-0504.html (580 words)

	Ugetsu
		Ugetsu is considered for many as the glorious masterpiece of Mizoguchi.
		Two couples, strongly struck by the poverty, live at the edge of desperation and hopeless, until one day, one of them decides to materialize a very long desire: to become a samurai.
		Ugetsu is the story of two couples in 16th century Japan (a brother and sister and their respective spouses) and the misadventures that befall them when they set out from their village to sell pottery in the city.
	www.dvd-today.com /dvd/B000BB14I0/Ugetsu.html (1169 words)

	ugetsu
		"Ugetsu Monogotari" is an imaginative film from Japan that masterfully combines fantasy with gritty realism.
		But when he returns to his wife, he is devastated when he learns of the changes that she has gone through.
		It may also encourage viewers to reconsider the moral implications of their actions, and reawaken their sense of wonder or curiosity about other cultures.
	www.reelmoviecritic.com /rmc/U_2006/ugetsu.htm (351 words)

	DVD - Ugetsu - Criterion Collection
		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.
		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.
		Ugetsu is one of the most fascinating films of the Japanese Cinema and at the same time a world masterpiece.
	www.batcave.net /store/ItemId/B000BB14I0 (905 words)

	The Criterion Collection: Ugetsu
		And Ugetsu, a ghost story like no other, is surely the Japanese director’s supreme achievement.
		Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss—with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real—is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
		Ugetsu is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
	www.criterionco.com /asp/release.asp?id=309 (304 words)

	10,000 Bullets » Ugetsu
		Ugetsu is set in the 16th century around the time of the civil war in Japan.
		The central characters in Ugetsu are men but the consequences of their actions lead to death and prostitution for their wives.
		When the four neighbours escape their village on a boat, the scene on the river as a ghostly boat and it’s dying occupant pass is amazing for a studio set (see left).
	10kbullets.com /reviews/ugetsu (996 words)

	The Yale Herald - February 10, 2006 - Ugetsu
		More precisely, Ugetsu feels like the ghost of a John Ford movie, one of those paeans to down-to-earth common family men who set out to pioneer epics.
		As in Ford’s The Searchers, the first scenes are devoted to family life (albeit in 17th-century Japan) in a shack somewhere in the wilderness, where we encounter Genjuro, a greedy farmer who invests all his economic aspirations in his pottery, and his brother Tobei, a rookie who wants to make it with the big Samurai.
		Life’s war and hell, dreaming’s peace, and Ugetsu, moving through each from the perspective of the other,is a swan song to the day, made at its end, thinking of all that’s gone and happened on us, falling in and out of sleep.
	www.yaleherald.com /article.php?Article=4491 (696 words)

	Combustible Celluloid film review - Ugetsu (1953), Kenji Mizoguchi, Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo, dvd review
		But other masters who appeared during this time were just at the tail ends of their careers.
		Ugetsu came in the middle of a turning point.
		He feverishly cranked out nine films in the last four years of his life, and three of them, The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu, and Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and won the top prize at the Venice film festival, three years in a row.
	www.combustiblecelluloid.com /classic/ugetsu.shtml (759 words)

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