Sansho the Bailiff (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

As the dogged Zushio´s zeroes in on his mother´s last known whereabouts, his final hope is dashed when he is told her village was wiped out by a tsunami. It´s over. And just then he hears a sad, pain-filled, warbling voice sing out: "Zushio, how I long for you. My Anju, fly away." It is a song he has heard before in childhood, and later whispered as a rumor. He sees a blind, old woman sitting on the beach, barely aware of her surroundings. He listens to her for a while then drops to his knees, sobbing. "It is I, Zushio." She believes him to be an evil spirit sent to torment her even more in a life that has been filled only with torture. He finally convinces her, and with a few lies promises her the happiness she has been denied since the moment her children were torn from her.

It is perhaps the single most devastating scene I have ever watched. In the final shot, the camera pulls back a great distance and from a high angle to show the tiny mother and son embracing in a desolate landscape, and it is the sort of image that lingers in the mind forever. If you are not moved to tears by it, even on multiple viewings, I cannot hazard a guess as to what is wrong with you.

Is it one of the greatest endings of all time? The final moments of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Stroszek" as well as a few of Bresson´s films ("Pickpocket" springs to mind) rival it as far as I am concerned. I know that if this scene alone was the only notable feature of the film, "Sansho the Bailiff" would still be a masterpiece. Fortunately, the rest of the movie holds up pretty well in its own right.

Video

The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Like many recent Criterion full-screen releases, the image is picture-boxed, meaning that some viewers will see thin black bars on the left and right as well as the top and bottom. As for the transfer itself, it is perfect. As a former English professor told me, something is either perfect or it is not (like it is unique or not) and the word requires no other qualifiers. Therefore I will leave it at that: perfect.

Audio

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. Optional English subtitles support the Japanese audio.

Extras

I would have expected a deluxe 2-disc treatment from Criterion for such a magnificent film, but the single disc still offers some useful bonuses. The best is the commentary track by Japanese literature professor Jeffrey Angles, who focuses just as much on the Ogai Mori source material as on the film.

The rest of the extras consist of three interviews, with actress Kyoko Kagawa (10 min.), critic and historian Tadao Sata (24 min.) and Tokuzo Tanaka (15 min) who serves as first assistant director to Mizoguchi.

The hefty insert booklet begins with an essay by professor Mark Le Fanu, but the bulk consists of translated versions of the "Sansho" story including the Ogai Mori tale that Mizoguchi and Yoda adapted, and a very different version titled "An Account of the Life of the Deity of Mount Ikawi" which focuses more on Anju.

Film Value

Now I will reverse field, and make the claim I refused to before. "Sansho the Bailiff" is one of the greatest films ever made, and the greatest Japanese film that I have ever seen (though this comes with the qualification that I have many more Japanese films to see in my lifetime.) We could ask for a few more extras, maybe a "definitive" documentary or two, but Criterion´s flawless presentation more than does justice to Mizoguchi´s masterwork.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---