Based on a Japanese folk tale, written by Mori Ogai, written for the screen by Yoda Yoshikata and Yahiro Fuji.
I sense that Mizoguchi likes angles, and isn't square-on like Ozu. His camera is discreet, though does occasionally move mightily - thus just before the end on the beach there's that lovely tracking shot that goes into a crane shot high over the scenery. I describe the filming, and Miyagawa Kazuo's shimmering photography, as 'polite camera'.
The story concerns a brother and sister, played by Kato Masahiko / Hanayagi Yoshiaki (older) and Enami Keiko / Kagawa Kyoko, who when young are separated from their mother Tanaka Kinyuo, who is sold into slavery - then they are too, becoming slaves on the property of the titular Sansho (Shindo Eitaro). Over ten years the brother becomes hardened and has forgotten what his father taught him about mercy, but then he escapes... There's a statue of a goddess that he carries with him that proves invaluable as a plot device.
A monk, actually Sansho's disillusioned son, Kono Akitake, provides help.
There's a certain theatricality to the acting in Japanese films of this era, I feel, such as the mob that goes after the brother, but most of the principal character work is more restrained.
Not my first Mizoguchi - that was Ugetsu Monogatari way back twelve years ago when I bought Eureka's eight-film box set - but a very impressive and beautiful and simple film, with a haunting feeling. And, as seen below, a brilliant use of landscape and nature.
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