Film: Sanshō Dayū
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Country: Japan
Released: March 1954
Runtime: 124 minutes
Genre: Historical Drama
Studio: Daiei
Influenced: Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick, Andrzej Wajda, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Sofia Coppola
Kenji Mizoguchi's Sanshō Dayū – which I refuse to translate as Sansho the Bailiff, since bailiffs are more associated with debt collection in English – is a period drama set in feudal Japan during the Heian period (11th century) following the story of Zushio, the son of a noble governor, his sister Anju and his mother Tamaki. At the start of the film, we see Tamaki's husband as a virtuous governor who is banished by a feudal lord for showing too much compassion for the peasants he rules, who are facing increased taxes on rice and enforced conscription. "A man is not a human being without mercy", the father says to his son Zushio, and we see this theme played out during the film through a series of flashbacks and lovely evocative, lingering cross fades.
His wife and children are kidnapped and sold into slavery, Tamaki sent to the island province of Sado and Zushio and Anju sent to a slave estate for the price of "7 silver" where they become the property of Sansho, a tyrannical governor who rules over the region with an iron fist. The screenplay by Fuji Yahiro and Yoshikata Yoda, adapted from a short story by Ogai Mori, has the elegance of a classic fable (the extensive Criterion booklet that comes with my restored version includes two versions of the source story, the original oral version and Japan's most popular written version). What's also striking about the film is the cinematography, with Mizoguchi using long takes and wide shots to capture the stunning Japanese landscape, with natural elements such as water and fire giving the film a timeless feel.
Themes of family, duty and sacrifice are constantly under the microscope, and Mizoguchi's long, unbroken takes emphasise the characters' isolation and vulnerability in their surroundings. After the traumatic kidnap scene, the film leaps forward 10 years, with Zushio now aged 23 and Sansho's trusted enforcer, while Anju (aged 18) has maintained her dignity and compassion despite the harsh treatment. Anju hears a fellow slave from the island of Sado (where her mother ended up) sing a song by a courtesan named Nakagimi about Zushio and Anju with the refrain, "Isn’t life a torture?"
Zushio manages to escape slavery and finds refuge at an Imperial temple. One of the monks there says to Zushio about his plans to go to Kyoto to seek justice, "I’ve found that humans have very little sympathy for things that don’t directly concern them". The film is full of such philosophical insights. Zushio is given a new title when he is surprisingly appointed governor of Tango, but his plans to liberate slaves is challenged by the Chief Advisor. We then see roles reversed between Zushio and Sansho near the end of the film ("a true fairy tale," as Sansho says), but Zushio's efforts to free the slaves is laced with tragedy as he finds out his sister is dead. He resigns as governor and eventually tracks down his mother, leading to an emotional reunion on the beach. It's an astounding, powerful film, and like Mizoguchi's other classic from this era – Ugetsu (1953) – Sanshō Dayū has a ghostly quality that lingers long in the memory.
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