Ugetsu monogatari
(a.k.a. "Tales of Ugetsu," "Tales of a Pale and Mysterious Moon After the Rain" and "Ugetsu")

Japan (1953): Drama

This film is a masterpiece by Kenji Mizoguchi (who would later make Princess Yang Kwei Fei, 1955). It paints a strange, erotic, and disturbing portrait of betrayal, cruelty, and corruption in medieval Japan. The plot conserns a poor potter named Gunjurô (Masayuki Mori) and a man named Tobei (Eitarô Ozawa) who wants to be a samurai and go to the town to find their dreams. Gunjurô is about to bring his wife and child, but they encounter, in a trully terrifying scene, a ghostly sailor who warns them about pirates. He drops his son and wife off on the shore and promises them he'll come back. When they are in the town, Tobei uses Gunjurô's hard-earned money to buy himself a suit of armor. He abandons his wife and goes off to become a samurai. His wife is raped by samurai and then becomes a prostitute. Tobei then becomes a great samurai through cheating by stealing another man's victory. Gunjurô meets and falls in love with a princess named Wakasa (Machico Kyô). He forgets about his wife and marries Wakasa. But then he finds that Wakasa is a ghost. Mizoguchi is certainly one of Japan's best filmakers. He films things in a strange, erotic way unlike any other film makers. Today this is still a very powerful film about one man's horrible folly and encounter with the supernatural. My rating: 5 stars out of 5. (Horror-Fan, IMDb)

· Costume Design (Black and White) 1955: Tadaoto Kainoscho

1 nomination