Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

Kenji Mizoguchi’s tragic folk saga of the tribulations of an exiled governor’s family in feudal Japan, tracked with exquisitely moving camerawork.

This sweeping historical tragedy about two children separated from their parents and sold into slavery continued a run of late masterpieces from Kenji Mizoguchi. Riding a crest of international recognition for Japanese cinema, initiated by Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950), Mizoguchi’s late period of creativity for the Daiei studio interspersed modern-day dramas with several widely acclaimed period dramas (jidai-geki).

Sansho Dayu is set in Japan’s distant past and is the heartbreaking story of a brother and sister, the children of a noble governor, who are kidnapped and sold as slaves to the cruel bailiff Sansho (Eitaro Shindo). Years pass, and the divided mother and children grow desperate, then resigned.

Mizoguchi relays this tragedy – based on a novel by Ogai Mori with its basis in myth – with classical force. Filming in his signature long, flowing takes, the director builds inexorably to an emotionally devastatingly climax.

“I vote in awe of one of the greatest filmmakers our world has known. Blending the exquisite precision of his indigenous culture with a universal Weltanschauung, this is one of Mizoguchi’s masterpieces; poetry and melancholy are one with him. The viewer who is not deeply moved by the final scene, the rigorous outcome of the preceding political and personal events, has a heart of stone.” Eithne O’Neill

“The most beautiful and devastating of all Mizoguchi’s films.” Steven Shaviro

1954 Japan
Directed by
Kenji Mizoguchi
Produced by
Masaichi Nagata
Written by
Yoshikata Yoda, Yahiro Fuji
Featuring
Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayaki, Kyôko Kagawa
Running time
123 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Sansho the Bailiff

Critics

Mo Abdi
Iran/UK
Salvador Amores
Mexico
Dudley Andrew
USA
Neil Bahadur
Canada
Vasco Baptista Marques
Portugal
Charles Barr
UK
Bernd Brehmer
Germany
Dan Callahan
USA
Diego Cepeda
Dominican Republic
Andrew Chan
USA
Luc Chessel
France
Michel Ciment
France
Jonathan Coe
UK
Jordan Cronk
USA
Nick Davis
USA
Michel Demopoulos
Greece
Pierre Eisenreich
France
Marc Francis
USA
Tag Gallagher
USA
Patrick Gamble
UK
Ruy Gardnier
Brazil
Peter Hames
UK
Eli Horwatt
USA
Hassan Hosseini
Iran
Dave Kehr
USA
Mark Le Fanu
UK
Mathieu Macheret
France
Eithne O'Neill
France
Karel Och
Czech Republic
Manuel Peláez
Spain
Tim Robey
UK
Joshua Rothkopf
USA
Peter Scarlet
USA/Abu Dhabi
Steven Shaviro
USA
Michael Wedel
Germany
Melanie Williams
UK

Directors

Ari Aster
USA
Fyzal Boulifa
UK
Laura Waddington
UK