Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Kinuyo Tanaka | ... | Tamaki | |
Yoshiaki Hanayagi | ... | Zushiô | |
Kyôko Kagawa | ... | Anju | |
Eitarô Shindô | ... | Sanshô dayû | |
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Akitake Kôno | ... | Taro |
Masao Shimizu | ... | Masauji Taira | |
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Ken Mitsuda | ... | Prime Minister Fujiwara |
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Kazukimi Okuni | ... | Norimura |
Yôko Kosono | ... | Kohagi | |
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Kimiko Tachibana | ... | Namiji |
Ichirô Sugai | ... | Nio, old escaped slave | |
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Teruko Ômi | ... | Nakagimi |
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Masahiko Tsugawa | ... | Young Zushio (as Masahiko Katô) |
Keiko Enami | ... | Young Anju | |
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Bontarô Akemi | ... | Kichiji |
In mediaeval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression. Written by David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>
Luminous...painterly...haunting...devastating...in terms of both substance and style, a cinematic achievement of the very highest order. Like all great works of art, it is incomparable, although it would not be misleading to place it in the company of the very best of Renoir, Ford, and Kurosawa. It has the same kind of compassionate humanism, high-caliber storytelling, and effortless-seeming mastery of the medium...the same generosity.
I prefer this film even to the great (and much better-known) Ugetsu. And I know now why Welles once said that Mizoguchi "can't be praised enough, really." I hope one day this film will be as well known as it deserves to be.