Ugetsu (1953)

Original title

雨月物語

Directed by

Kenji Mizoguchi

Genre

drama film, fantasy film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 36m

Rated

NR

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 643 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A potter in 16th century Japan leaves his family to sell his wares and becomes enchanted by a ghostly woman. Meanwhile his brother-in-law pursues his dream of becoming a samurai. Both men find their ambitions come at a great personal cost.

hauntingmelancholicatmosphericdreamlikeslow-burntragicvisually poeticintrospective

What happens

Ugetsu (雨月物語, Ugetsu Monogatari, lit. "Rain-moon tales") is a 1953 Japanese period fantasy film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō. It is based on the stories "The House in the Thicket" and "The Lust of the White Serpent" from Ueda Akinari's 1776 book Ugetsu Monogatari, combining elements of the jidaigeki (period drama) genre with a ghost story. Drawing from Ueda's tales, the film is set in Japan's civil war–torn Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1600). In a small rural community, a potter leaves his wife and young son behind to make money selling pottery and ends up being seduced by a spirit that makes him forget all about his family. A subplot, inspired by Guy de Maupassant's 1883 short story "How He Got the Legion of Honor" ("Décoré !"), involves his brother-in-law, who dreams of becoming a samurai and chases this goal at the unintended expense of his wife. The film won the Silver Lion Award at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and other honours. Ugetsu is one of Mizoguchi's most celebrated films, regarded by critics as a masterpiece of Japanese cinema, credited with simultaneously helping to popularize Japanese cinema in the West and influencing later Japanese film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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