Well, it's been a long time since I watched these, but I want to do a review of something and I have nothing else recently I can think of that I watched...so....
Kenji Mizoguchi is one of the Japanese directors I am not as well versed in. He has some pretty huge major ones too, including these two, Street of Shame, and The 47 Ronin. Mizoguchi is one of the lesser known guys of this era, but that does not mean less impactful. As we learn here.
Ugetsu is the story of a war-divided family plight. Husband and wife are separated after they make a daring escape in a boat after some troops have invaded. They separate, and husband goes off to certain success while wife is led into a life of prostitution and misery.
Overall, it's about the horrors of war, the difference between man and woman, and the strife of the everyday person, often overlooked in the big picture of war.
Sansho the Bailiff is thematically similar, hence the grouped together review here. Brother and sister are kidnapped and taken to a slave camp led by Sansho the Bailiff. There, brother is helped on the way to escape by sister. Brother goes and somehow it turns out he is actually going to inherit the role of governor. He returns to try to free sister, but what he doesn't know is what's happened to her in the meantime.
Writing these down, they sound practically like the same movie, and honestly, they are quite similar. They're about the disintegration of family, the horror of war (again) and the resiliency of the citizen.
Spoiler warning, but these movies also end almost exactly the same. One character finding out the other one is dead and gone, and left alone to suffer and reflect on what happened. Fuck dude, I mean that sucks you know.
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