Sansho the Bailiff, quite simply put, is poetry on film. What we have here isn't just a collage of images, a script, some actors, whatever. What we have here is a vision and an idea. That in the hands of a master can become so much more than the sum of it's parts, and without a doubt Kenji Mizoguchi has proved he is right up there amongst the greats not only of Asian or more specifically even Japanese Cinema, such as Ozu or Kurosawa, but amongst all of cinema full stop. There is so much here that hit me deep to the core, so much that many years after watching it it still has some kind of a mysteriously profound effect upon me, and i guess that is the power art can have, the ability to in some way even affect your life. I mean, you are likely to many times in your life watch a film, or listen to a piece of music, and think "Wow that was great." but how man time in your lifetime to you watch a film or listen to a piece of music and at the end of it feel completely stunned, and have no real words to descirbe it. It's a much rarer event, it has probably happened to me a dozen times at most, and this fits into that category, and this is one of the films which shaped my tastes in movies full stop.
Sansho the Bailiff has often been described as the saddest film in the world, and I think thats very apt. The film is coincidentally not named after what can be described as a main character but more-so named after a symbol, Sansho a character whom appears briefly here and there, but not very often, but at the same time he is at the very core of the concept of this film. He's a very odd and immediately striking looking old man whom has some high position working under some feudal lord of some sort, and he runs a slave camp. The workers are treated no better than dogs, as was the case in this period of Japan, status was everything, and Sansho ruled the roost with an iron fist. The main characters of this film are a family torn apart by this hypocritical and floored hierarchy. This family; the mother and the son and daughter, are attacked by bandits and sold off. The mother is sent off to an island to work, isolated from her children whom are sent off to the slave camp under Sansho. Why were the family out there in the first place? There father was exiled for showing sympathy to bandits and as such was exiled. He did previously to that have a high positioning too.
Throughout the film you feel the pangs of distance, the poignance of the situation, and this is no less carried along by the absolutely stunning cinematography by Mizoguchi. The film is as much about family and hope as it is about status and the time period, and how this is sustained throughout many years despite the separation.
So Sansho the Bailiff is amptly named after a character in the film which you probably only see but a few times; a character fuelled by the power and greed his position gave to him. The film is centrally focused more on the children, a son and a daughter, and how they try to handle the way they are treated, there separation from there parents and there own destinies.
The son and the daughter react very differently to the situation, one loses all sense of morality and does his best to gain position in the camp, hoping to rid himself of the squalor, the daughter never lets go of hope of once again seeing there mother.
This is one of the most important things about the film, because the film is essentially a morality tail. The sons loss of morality, eventual realisation and redemption, the consequences of his actions and the things he learns from all he went through. The main driving force of the ideals within the film are the contrasting effects the situation has upon the two children, one accepting the fate and doing there utmost to gain stature, the other not so much spitting in the face of the system so to speak, but merely going along with it in hope. We then have the eventual realisation, retribution etc etc etc.
The point is I have never seen a sadder film, or a more poignant film. Truly one of the few films which can be described as poetry on film.
Sansho the Bailiff has often been described as the saddest film in the world, and I think thats very apt. The film is coincidentally not named after what can be described as a main character but more-so named after a symbol, Sansho a character whom appears briefly here and there, but not very often, but at the same time he is at the very core of the concept of this film. He's a very odd and immediately striking looking old man whom has some high position working under some feudal lord of some sort, and he runs a slave camp. The workers are treated no better than dogs, as was the case in this period of Japan, status was everything, and Sansho ruled the roost with an iron fist. The main characters of this film are a family torn apart by this hypocritical and floored hierarchy. This family; the mother and the son and daughter, are attacked by bandits and sold off. The mother is sent off to an island to work, isolated from her children whom are sent off to the slave camp under Sansho. Why were the family out there in the first place? There father was exiled for showing sympathy to bandits and as such was exiled. He did previously to that have a high positioning too.
Throughout the film you feel the pangs of distance, the poignance of the situation, and this is no less carried along by the absolutely stunning cinematography by Mizoguchi. The film is as much about family and hope as it is about status and the time period, and how this is sustained throughout many years despite the separation.
So Sansho the Bailiff is amptly named after a character in the film which you probably only see but a few times; a character fuelled by the power and greed his position gave to him. The film is centrally focused more on the children, a son and a daughter, and how they try to handle the way they are treated, there separation from there parents and there own destinies.
The son and the daughter react very differently to the situation, one loses all sense of morality and does his best to gain position in the camp, hoping to rid himself of the squalor, the daughter never lets go of hope of once again seeing there mother.
This is one of the most important things about the film, because the film is essentially a morality tail. The sons loss of morality, eventual realisation and redemption, the consequences of his actions and the things he learns from all he went through. The main driving force of the ideals within the film are the contrasting effects the situation has upon the two children, one accepting the fate and doing there utmost to gain stature, the other not so much spitting in the face of the system so to speak, but merely going along with it in hope. We then have the eventual realisation, retribution etc etc etc.
The point is I have never seen a sadder film, or a more poignant film. Truly one of the few films which can be described as poetry on film.