"Sanshô dayû" or "Sansho the Bailiff" is a Japanese black-and-white film from 1954, so this one has its 65th anniversary this year still for a little over a day. The director is Kenji Mizoguchi and he is considered one of several contenders to be second best Japanese filmmakers of all time with the first spot of course being given to Kurosawa. But especially if we look at the old days, Mizoguchi is really well-received. The rating here on imdb says it all and even if it is the film with the highest rating here I believe there are others that have the 8 left of the comma. Anyway, this one runs for a little over 2 hours, but is based on a short story, which makes sense because one key criticism I had with this movie was that it felt far too long for its own good and plot and story did not really justify crussing the 2-hour mark. As for the cast, I cannot say too much about the Oscars, but I will still say a few words. The stunning Kyôko Kagawa is still alive today. Yoshiaki Hanayagi, who plays maybe the character with the most screen time, was really forgotten quickly and it is pretty difficult to find information about him despite him playing a key character in such a big movie. Kinuyo Tanaka was among the most successful Japanese actresses from her generation and she has worked with Mizoguchi on other occasions. Eitarô Shindô plays the title character and it says it all that he is just credited fourth in the cast list. I have no idea why the film was named after him. I mean you can dig for explanations like he was always present on the actual central male character's mind and his three important sentences about humans are present from beginning to end in this movie, but it just wasn't a good choice in my opinion. The character is not significant enough and it is baffling that actually there is not even another word in the title, just the character's name. Oh well, you get what I mean.
Now as for the story here, it is typical for Mizoguchi compared to other works I have seen. The film plays way back in the past. Main characters die, also the good ones. It is a lot about tradition and family and from that perspective it offers some interesting references. But it's not enough reason to watch the film. I also thought it started really really weak and needed a while to at least get going a bit and create interest in the characters. But there it wasn't a much better watch either. We have several occasions during which characters are punished hard for what they did and all of them are basically slaves who are violently abused by their master with a hot iron. We don't see these scenes, but just heard the screams of pain. I felt it was a cheap attempt to create emotion in the audience. Of course it is really shocking and painful to witness, but how about you show us something about these characters, elaborate on them in the sense of convincing character studies that we really have a reason to feel sorry for them and don't just see them as strangers? And at some point it also just got a bit repetitive. We have a flight sequence by the two young people from their slaves, which means they were risking their lives through that. The moment when the old lady helps the young female protagonist to get away was okay. Still the chase sequence then when the bad guys are chasing the duo feels overlong and it is never the thrill ride it could have been with which we really would have felt for the two and wanted them to be safe. Then there is another big jump and the focus is basically only on the male character from that moment on. We find out why at the end. I shall get to that later. So next we have the male protagonist in a pretty influential political position fighting against slavery obviously fueled by the experiences he made. But there is nothing else. We don't find out how he managed to get into this position, how he rose to power, how he worked on other issues. Only that he opposed slavery and put up signs that said it is forbidden and that is it. Not much later, he lost all his power. The explanation for that at the end is that he decided to live his life according to these three sentences from his dad. But do they really include enough motivation to surrender? And if so, then why did he rise to this prestigious job before that? Would that not have been breaking the rules too? Anyway, near the end there is drama that is very much for the sake of it when we find out the man's father and sister are not alive anymore, but in the sense of a slight happy ending he is united with his mother again, who seemingly does not really be sane anymore mentally given what she tells her son. That is it. So yeah, I think this film needed better elaborations, better focus, better character writing on many occasions. It feels as if they were almost trying to make an epic (or fictitious biopic) here, but I think it came really short. It is not complete failure, but the rating here on imdb is so exaggerated. Here and there we have a good moment like I liked how they included these phrases from his father throughout the film and it as a bit memorable. But for each good reference, there are 2-3 weak ones, such as the woman singing the song from the mother she caught somewhere. Now think how small the chance was to run into somebody who knew the parents and how minimal the chance was for this character to catch a song like that and sing it the exact moment you pass by. It felt highly unrealistic. Okay I think I have made clear now that I did not like this film and why I didn't. I believe it really drags. I watched this as part of a retrospective on Mizoguchi and I think it was the third film I saw from him and I certainly preferred the previous, also because I am not too much of a fan with overacting and it is basically in all his films, but when the story is so shoddy then it feels even worse. My suggestion is to skip "Sanshô dayû". Watch something else instead.
Now as for the story here, it is typical for Mizoguchi compared to other works I have seen. The film plays way back in the past. Main characters die, also the good ones. It is a lot about tradition and family and from that perspective it offers some interesting references. But it's not enough reason to watch the film. I also thought it started really really weak and needed a while to at least get going a bit and create interest in the characters. But there it wasn't a much better watch either. We have several occasions during which characters are punished hard for what they did and all of them are basically slaves who are violently abused by their master with a hot iron. We don't see these scenes, but just heard the screams of pain. I felt it was a cheap attempt to create emotion in the audience. Of course it is really shocking and painful to witness, but how about you show us something about these characters, elaborate on them in the sense of convincing character studies that we really have a reason to feel sorry for them and don't just see them as strangers? And at some point it also just got a bit repetitive. We have a flight sequence by the two young people from their slaves, which means they were risking their lives through that. The moment when the old lady helps the young female protagonist to get away was okay. Still the chase sequence then when the bad guys are chasing the duo feels overlong and it is never the thrill ride it could have been with which we really would have felt for the two and wanted them to be safe. Then there is another big jump and the focus is basically only on the male character from that moment on. We find out why at the end. I shall get to that later. So next we have the male protagonist in a pretty influential political position fighting against slavery obviously fueled by the experiences he made. But there is nothing else. We don't find out how he managed to get into this position, how he rose to power, how he worked on other issues. Only that he opposed slavery and put up signs that said it is forbidden and that is it. Not much later, he lost all his power. The explanation for that at the end is that he decided to live his life according to these three sentences from his dad. But do they really include enough motivation to surrender? And if so, then why did he rise to this prestigious job before that? Would that not have been breaking the rules too? Anyway, near the end there is drama that is very much for the sake of it when we find out the man's father and sister are not alive anymore, but in the sense of a slight happy ending he is united with his mother again, who seemingly does not really be sane anymore mentally given what she tells her son. That is it. So yeah, I think this film needed better elaborations, better focus, better character writing on many occasions. It feels as if they were almost trying to make an epic (or fictitious biopic) here, but I think it came really short. It is not complete failure, but the rating here on imdb is so exaggerated. Here and there we have a good moment like I liked how they included these phrases from his father throughout the film and it as a bit memorable. But for each good reference, there are 2-3 weak ones, such as the woman singing the song from the mother she caught somewhere. Now think how small the chance was to run into somebody who knew the parents and how minimal the chance was for this character to catch a song like that and sing it the exact moment you pass by. It felt highly unrealistic. Okay I think I have made clear now that I did not like this film and why I didn't. I believe it really drags. I watched this as part of a retrospective on Mizoguchi and I think it was the third film I saw from him and I certainly preferred the previous, also because I am not too much of a fan with overacting and it is basically in all his films, but when the story is so shoddy then it feels even worse. My suggestion is to skip "Sanshô dayû". Watch something else instead.