Why don’t we start our discussion of “Ugetsu” with the broad what-did-you-think-of-the-movie question?
A few things that might be worth considering as background:
This movie came out in 1953 just after the restrictions of the U.S. occupation had been lifted. And prior to the American controls, the Japanese military government had long controlled the content of film. So there was a new freedom at this time. But there were also new commercial pressures. Mizoguchi was at a big studio that was releasing a feature film a week. Other studios were as well. And there were imports.
“Ugetsu” was made near the end of Mizoguchi’s long career. I gather that he had explored quite a few different styles of filmmaking over the years.
Japanese filmmakers were having some success internationally with movies that had historical settings, for instance, Kurosawa, but films set in contemporary Japan, such as those of Ozu, were not watched much abroad.
7 comments:
I really liked it. I'd like to read the tales it was based on (I bet the university library has them). I loved the sets, especially the boating scene and the interiors of the potter's home — and the gothic morality tale feel.
I also like the timeless feel it had. It said it was in the 16th century. But I would have believed 14th or even early 20th century, too, in rural Japan. (Was that just me? I found it interesting that a Western movie could not look like it took place maybe in the Renaissance or maybe 100 years ago ... I guess if you were Japanese, you'd know the difference, though — you'd be able to identify mannerisms, speech, clothing, etc., as belonging to a certain period. One of the DVD extras has the assistant director talking about how every little prop was carefully researched to fit the period).
Oh, I was certainly going to recommend the DVD extras on this disk. They are quite good even by Criterion standards.
No, I don’t think it would feel timeless to any Japanese who had a sense of the architectural and clothing styles of their history although I don’t know how well these are taught to students. In any case, Mizoguchi went to great lengths to get the period details right, so he certainly wasn’t trying for a timeless look.
On the other hand, he certainly is looking quite broadly at the experience of living through war. His contemporary viewers would all watch the film from the context of their own recent experience.
Yeah, I wondered whether the whole idea of going mad with greed and ambition during wartime was a commentary on recent Japanese experience.
I enjoyed the movie, too. I didn't quite know what to think of it because I went in completely cold. I had actually assumed it was a recent film and was surprised to see how old it was.
The boating scene was my favorite.
What a film! Because I forgot that you called it a "ghost story" when you announced it, the storyline took a surprising detour for me. I thought it would be a morality tale about greed and war, and then it became something else. And then something else.
I have not watched the extras yet but will do so.
The boating scene was fantastic — the quiet, foggy eeriness. I think the idea of escape by boat has a primal appeal to our ancient, innate wanderlust.
And the feeling of remoteness, separateness from the war on land, the safety of the water that's so completely shattered when the dying man on the "ghost boat" warns of pirates.
I loved the symbolism in the woman rowing the boat. She had no control over her own life, her own future, but she was depended upon to pilot the boat — like women's labors were depended upon to maintain the household, to keep it going, even though they had no real control over the family's destiny, which was subject to male prerogative and whim.
I loved the scenes set in the ghost manor. They made the potter's enchantment possible even though I didn't recognize that in the literal sense until later. When the servants move through the rooms to light each space, as they gather for the singing and ceremony, the luxury of the hot spring water bath. And then they're rolling around on the grass and it slowly gives way to dirt and gravel, and you know it's going to cut back to the potter's poor wife and child whom he's forgotten.
I liked the movie, but I felt that there was a lot more to it than what I could see. After reading some reviews (and the comments by all of you), I found that I was right -- there was a lot that I missed.
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