Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Even the exquisite photography of this film cannot overshadow its unrelenting grimness. The story line is the most depressing of any non-Swedish film I've seen. It tells of the travails of a well-to-do family who are torn apart by fate. The moody score, which uses a combination of western and Japanese instruments, adds to its overall gloominess.

SANSHO THE BAILIFF is a magical, historical period drama that at any moment can break the human heart. The Film is set in Heian period in Japan. Slavery was permitted. The story describes the family of one of the court officials who, because of his honesty and integrity, was sentenced by superiors. His wife has cheated, kidnapped and forced into prostitution. His son and daughter have become slaves at the notorious and cruel Bailiff. The young man, after growing up in the camp, becomes the chief aide to his master, but his sister and cruel circumstances force him to face his own conscience...The scenery is extremely rich. The costumes symbolizes the social status and human personality. It is amazing how the change in the character of the main protagonists depends on the social status. However, the family is most important in this film. Perhaps even more than social sacrifice, which mainly affects women, regardless of age. The mother, who is in the greatest pain for lost children, creates a song, a daughter, who takes her own life in order to provide her own brother an opportunity for new life, are parts of identity of Mr. Mizoguchi.The protagonists are emotional, they suffer and live out of necessity, regardless of the realization of the ideals that they carry within. This film can be seen as a tragic history of one family. The film is rightly named after the main villain, because he is in the middle between two worlds.A film about morality, love, family, duty and compassion that at times is breathtaking.

This is one of the most canonically celebrated films that I had, until a couple of days ago, never seen. It fully lives up to the hype- this is a profound and moving work of the highest aesthetic accomplishment. I really like Mizuguchi's "contemporary" films about women in post-war Japan. But his period pieces are far more visually sumptuous. As with Ugetsu, the landscapes in this film are stunning: comparable and clearly indebted to museum-worthy Japanese scroll painting. The first quarter or so of the film is a series of flashbacks of a genuinely benevolent, both personally and politically, patriarch recalled from a feminine present of compromise and scarcity. A truly horrifying, if unforgettably beautiful, kidnapping on a lake transports us into a reality in which hope, and memory, seem proscribed. From this space of subjection will come the world most familiar to us- one in which there are, indeed, acts of altruistic self-destruction, and even of effective decency, if motivated primarily by revenge. Ultimately peace and justice, represented by the Father seen only in flashback, seem like fantasies in the minds of the tormented. Our world is for suffering.

" Sansho the Bailiff" is definitely one of those movies you will remember for a long time, this was second movie i have watched from Kenji Mizoguchi, the first was "Ugetsu" which is also wonderful movie, but this one is masterpiece. I am fan of Japanese cinema for a long time now, especially of older movies, and in my opinion this is one of the best movies ever to came out from Japan. The most i like about this movie is a atmosphere, the camera, and emotions you feel and get.My favorite scene is ending scene when finally after so many years main character Zushio find his mother, and when they hug each other, finally he finds peace and personal heaven after so many years of pain and sorrow, and what i like about this movie is a message to stay human, to stay open to other people and their suffering. Also what i like about this movie is that is set in Heian period, other historical dramas are occasionally set at Edo period, we see how life for ordinary people in that period of Japanese history was harsh. I am recommending this movie to all people who still feel human in this unhuman world and remember "Without mercy, man is not a human being."