Tales of Ugetsu
1953
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
I think if you have been reading this blog regularly, you can gather that I am a fan of Japanese cinema, mostly because I cannot shut up about it sometimes. Okay, all the time.
That being said, this one fell a little short of my expectations. That is not necessarily the film's fault, since my expectations are ridiculously high at this point.
This movie is about…what is this movie about? I had a really hard time following it, to be honest. I guess it is about two men and their wives; one of the men wants to be a samurai (who doesn't?) and the other wants to be a potter. Or he already is a potter and just wants to be a better one? The wives and men get separated. While the wives are met with horrible fates, one of the men marries a ghost.
I just confused myself even more writing that paragraph. So obviously, I find the plot a bit confounding. Still, this film is very interesting. First, the movie uses the supernatural like I have never seen it before. Nowadays, if there is a movie about ghosts or phantoms, it is most likely a low budget horror film. However, this movie used the supernatural as something entrancing and sad.
This is also one of the major films that brought attention to Japanese cinema. So check it out, though you may require flowcharts.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Also translates to Tales of the Moon and Rain.
Referenced in 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her and Gossip Girl.
Did you like the ending? I found it completely heartbreaking. The child is such a sweet boy.
ReplyDeleteIt was super sad. But I suppose I thought it fit.
DeleteThe moral appears to be not to get ideas above your station and to contentedly settle for your place in life and what you have there. Which is a very east-Asian way of looking at things. Had this scenario been used for a western movie, I think we can be sure that it would have ended with both families getting rich and Tobei becoming a great samurai. Or, at least, they would have had to have committed greater sins along the way to justify what western audiences would see as a sad ending.
ReplyDelete