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Sansho the Bailiff
Sansho the Bailiff (Japanese: 山椒大夫, Hepburn: Sanshō Dayū; known by its Japanese title in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a 1954 Japanese period film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi based on a 1915 short story of the same name by Mori Ōgai (translated as "Sanshō the Steward" in English), which in turn was based on a sekkyō-bushi (oral lore) appearing in written form in the 17th century. It follows two aristocratic children who are sold into slavery.
Sansho the Bailiff bears many of Mizoguchi's hallmarks, such as portrayals of poverty and elaborately choreographed long takes. It is regarded as Mizoguchi’s magnum opus and one of cinema’s greatest films.
Sansho the Bailiff is a jidai-geki set in the latter part of the eleventh century, during the Heian period of feudal Japan.
In 1077, a virtuous governor is banished by a feudal lord to a far-off Tsukushi Province. His wife, Tamaki, and children, Zushiō and Anju, are sent to live with her brother. Just before they are separated, Zushiō's father tells him, "Without mercy, man is like a beast. Even if you are hard on yourself, be merciful to others." He urges his son to remember his words and gives him a statuette of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy.
Years later, in 1083, the wife and children journey to his exiled land but are tricked on the journey by a treacherous priestess. The mother is sold into prostitution in Sado and the children are sold by slave traders to a manorial estate in Tango Province, where slaves are brutalized and branded when they try to escape. The estate, protected under the Minister of the Right, is administered by the eponymous Sanshō. Sanshō's son Tarō, the second-in-charge, is a much more humane master and convinces the children to survive before they can escape to find their mother.
The children grow to young adulthood at the slave camp. Anju still believes in the teachings of her father but Zushiō has repressed his humanity, becoming one of the brutal overseers, believing that this is the only way to survive. At work, Anju hears a song from a new slave girl from Sado which mentions her and her brother in the lyrics, leading her to believe their mother is still alive. She tries to convince Zushiō to escape but he refuses, citing the difficulty and their lack of money.
Zushiō is ordered to take Namiji, an older woman who is acutely ill, out of the slave camp to die in the wilderness. Anju accompanies them and while they break branches to provide covering for the dying woman, they recall a similar act from their earlier childhood. Zushiō changes his mind and asks Anju to escape with him to find their mother. Anju asks him to take Namiji with him, convincing her brother she will stay behind to distract the guards. Zushiō promises to return for Anju. However, after Zushiō's escape, Anju commits suicide by walking into a lake, drowning herself so that she will not be tortured and forced to reveal her brother's whereabouts.
After Zushiō escapes, he finds Tarō at an Imperial temple. Zushiō asks him to care for Namiji so that he can go to Kyoto to appeal to the Chief Advisor regarding the appalling slave conditions. Although initially refusing to see him, the Chief Advisor realizes who Zushiō is after seeing his statuette of Kannon. He then tells Zushiō that his exiled father died the year before and offers him the post of the governor of Tango, the province where Sanshō's manor is situated.
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Sansho the Bailiff
Sansho the Bailiff (Japanese: 山椒大夫, Hepburn: Sanshō Dayū; known by its Japanese title in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a 1954 Japanese period film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi based on a 1915 short story of the same name by Mori Ōgai (translated as "Sanshō the Steward" in English), which in turn was based on a sekkyō-bushi (oral lore) appearing in written form in the 17th century. It follows two aristocratic children who are sold into slavery.
Sansho the Bailiff bears many of Mizoguchi's hallmarks, such as portrayals of poverty and elaborately choreographed long takes. It is regarded as Mizoguchi’s magnum opus and one of cinema’s greatest films.
Sansho the Bailiff is a jidai-geki set in the latter part of the eleventh century, during the Heian period of feudal Japan.
In 1077, a virtuous governor is banished by a feudal lord to a far-off Tsukushi Province. His wife, Tamaki, and children, Zushiō and Anju, are sent to live with her brother. Just before they are separated, Zushiō's father tells him, "Without mercy, man is like a beast. Even if you are hard on yourself, be merciful to others." He urges his son to remember his words and gives him a statuette of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy.
Years later, in 1083, the wife and children journey to his exiled land but are tricked on the journey by a treacherous priestess. The mother is sold into prostitution in Sado and the children are sold by slave traders to a manorial estate in Tango Province, where slaves are brutalized and branded when they try to escape. The estate, protected under the Minister of the Right, is administered by the eponymous Sanshō. Sanshō's son Tarō, the second-in-charge, is a much more humane master and convinces the children to survive before they can escape to find their mother.
The children grow to young adulthood at the slave camp. Anju still believes in the teachings of her father but Zushiō has repressed his humanity, becoming one of the brutal overseers, believing that this is the only way to survive. At work, Anju hears a song from a new slave girl from Sado which mentions her and her brother in the lyrics, leading her to believe their mother is still alive. She tries to convince Zushiō to escape but he refuses, citing the difficulty and their lack of money.
Zushiō is ordered to take Namiji, an older woman who is acutely ill, out of the slave camp to die in the wilderness. Anju accompanies them and while they break branches to provide covering for the dying woman, they recall a similar act from their earlier childhood. Zushiō changes his mind and asks Anju to escape with him to find their mother. Anju asks him to take Namiji with him, convincing her brother she will stay behind to distract the guards. Zushiō promises to return for Anju. However, after Zushiō's escape, Anju commits suicide by walking into a lake, drowning herself so that she will not be tortured and forced to reveal her brother's whereabouts.
After Zushiō escapes, he finds Tarō at an Imperial temple. Zushiō asks him to care for Namiji so that he can go to Kyoto to appeal to the Chief Advisor regarding the appalling slave conditions. Although initially refusing to see him, the Chief Advisor realizes who Zushiō is after seeing his statuette of Kannon. He then tells Zushiō that his exiled father died the year before and offers him the post of the governor of Tango, the province where Sanshō's manor is situated.
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