Ugetsu - Criterion Collection

Ugetsu - Criterion Collection
by Kenji Mizoguchi

Ugetsu - Criterion Collection
List Price: $39.95
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

Buy Ugetsu - Criterion Collection at Amazon.com
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Eitar? Ozawa, Ikio Sawamura, Kinuyo Tanaka, Machiko Ky?, Masayuki Mori
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Kazuo Miyagawa
Editor: Mitsuz? Miyata
Producer: Masaichi Nagata
Writer: Akinari Ueda
Writer: Ky?chi Tsuji
Writer: Matsutar? Kawaguchi
Writer: Yoshikata Yoda
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion Collection

Movie Reviews of Ugetsu - Criterion Collection

Movie Review: SIMPLY THE BEST
Summary: 5 Stars

Calling this film a "movie" is like calling the Mona Lisa a "painting". Heartbreakingly gorgeous from start to finish, this masterwork has no equal in the film arts. And, it just keeps getting better every time you see it. Ugetsu is not only a great moral fable, but also a spooky ghost story and an unparalled tearjerker (for me, anyway). Since I've seen this film many dozens of times--the floodgates open with the credits. There is a sense of terrible dread and foreboding during the first half and incredible creepiness in the other. But above all there is a mythic, ethereal beauty in every frame that I have never seen in any other film. This is truly one for the ages.

Summary of Ugetsu - Criterion Collection

The great Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi's crowning achievement, set in sixteenth-century Japan, a period of bloody civil war, and focusing on an ambitious potter haunted by a beautiful ghost and a farmer who dreams of becoming a samurai. A classic com
Hailed by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu is an undisputed masterpiece of Japanese cinema, revealing greater depths of meaning and emotion with each successive viewing. Mizoguchi's exquisite "gender tragedy" is set during Japan's violent 16th-century civil wars, a historical context well-suited to the director's compassionate perspective on the plight of women and the foibles of men. The story focuses on two brothers, Genjuro (Masayuki Mori) and Tobei (Sakae Ozawa), whose dreams of glory (one as a wealthy potter, the other a would-be samurai) cause them to leave their wives for the promise of success in Kyoto. Both are led astray by their blind ambitions, and their wives suffer tragic fates in their absence, as Ugetsu evolves into a masterful mixture of brutal wartime realism and haunting ghost story. The way Mizoguchi weaves these elements so seamlessly together is what makes Ugetsu (masterfully derived from short stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant) so challenging and yet deeply rewarding as a timeless work of art. Featuring flawless performances by some of Japan's greatest actors (including Machiko Kyo, from Kurosawa's Rashomon), Ugetsu is essential viewing for any serious lover of film. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
The Criterion Collection's high standards of scholarly excellence are on full display in the two-disc set of Ugetsu, packaged in an elegant slipcase reflecting the tonal beauty of the film itself, which has been fully restored with a high-definition digital transfer. The well-prepared commentary by critic/filmmaker Tony Rayns combines the astute observations of a serious cineaste (emphasizing a keen appreciation for Mizoguchi's long-take style, compositional meaning, and literary inspirations) with informative biographical and historical detail. In the 14-minute featurette "Two Worlds Intertwined," director Masahiro Shinoda discusses how Mizoguchi's career and films have had a lasting impact on himself and Japanese culture in general. Interviews with Tokuzo Tanaka (first assistant director on Ugetsu) and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa focus more specifically on anecdotal production history Mizoguchi's working methods, including the director's legendary perfectionism regarding painstaking details of props, costumes, and production design.

Disc 2 consists entirely of Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director, a 150-minute documentary from 1975. Though it occasionally gets bogged down in biographical minutia, the film provides a thoroughly comprehensive survey of Mizoguchi's career, including interviews with nearly all of Mizoguchi's primary collaborators. Director/interviewer Kaneto Shindo ultimately arrives at an emotionally devastating coup de grace when he informs the great actress Kinuyo Tanaka (star of The Life of Oharu and other Mizoguchi classics) that Mizoguchi had considered her "the love of his life." Tanaka's graceful response provides a moving appreciation of their artistic bond, which never evolved into romance. As we learn, the tragic irony of Mizoguchi's life is that he died in sadness and suffering, in 1956, just as he was entering a more hopeful and artistically revitalized period of middle age. After showing us all the locations that were important in Mizoguchi's life, the film closes with a blunt discovery of life's ethereal nature: The great director's final home was torn down and replaced with a gas station. The 72-page booklet that accompanies Ugestu contains a well-written appreciation of the film by critic Phillip Lopate. Also included are the three short stories that inspired Ugetsu, allowing readers to see how Mizoguchi and screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda masterfully combined elements of these unrelated stories to create one of the enduring classics of Japanese cinema. --Jeff Shannon

Art House & International DVD Video

DVD Video
Movies most talked about in Non Violent/Thinking Persons Japanese Films
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection ImageWhen a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-02-20; DVD
Best price: $24.78
Price in other shops: $39.95
Princess Mononoke ImagePrincess Mononoke
Disney; Release date: 2000-12-19; DVD
Best price: $10.79
Price in other shops: $22.99
The Ballad of Narayama ImageThe Ballad of Narayama
KOCH ENT.; Release date: 2008-06-10; DVD
Best price: $13.19
Price in other shops: $24.98
Tokyo Godfathers ImageTokyo Godfathers
SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2004-04-13; DVD
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops: $19.94
The Sea Is Watching ImageThe Sea Is Watching
Release date: 2003-11-18; DVD
Best price: $10.29
Price in other shops: $29.95
Tokyo Story - Criterion Collection ImageTokyo Story - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-10-28; DVD
Best price: $24.45
Price in other shops: $39.95
Grave of the Fireflies ImageGrave of the Fireflies
ADV Films; Release date: 2009-07-07; DVD
Best price: $10.74
Price in other shops: $19.98
The Eye ImageThe Eye
Release date: 2003-10-21; DVD
Best price: $14.31
Price in other shops: $24.99
Black Rain ImageBlack Rain
KOCH ENT.; Release date: 2009-10-20; DVD
Best price: $11.96
Price in other shops: $24.98
Shall We Dance? ImageShall We Dance?
Disney; Release date: 2005-02-01; DVD
Best price: $8.90
Price in other shops: $14.99
Similar DVD Movies
Rashomon - Criterion Collection ImageRashomon - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2002-03-26; DVD
Best price: $24.22
Price in other shops: $39.95
Late Spring - Criterion Collection ImageLate Spring - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-05-09; DVD
Best price: $23.99
Price in other shops: $39.95
Stories of Floating Weeds (A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) / Floating Weeds (1959)) - Criterion Collection ImageStories of Floating Weeds (A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) / Floating Weeds (1959)) - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-04-20; DVD
Best price: $24.37
Price in other shops: $39.95
Ikiru - Criterion Collection ImageIkiru - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-01-06; DVD
Best price: $24.93
Price in other shops: $39.95
Harakiri - Criterion Collection ImageHarakiri - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $24.44
Price in other shops: $39.95
Mouchette - Criterion Collection ImageMouchette - Criterion Collection
IMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2007-01-16; DVD
Best price: $22.99
Price in other shops: $39.95
Onibaba - Criterion Collection ImageOnibaba - Criterion Collection
OTOWA,NOBUKO; Release date: 2004-03-16; DVD
Best price: $18.36
Price in other shops: $29.95
Kwaidan - Criterion Collection ImageKwaidan - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2000-10-10; DVD
Best price: $18.43
Price in other shops: $29.95
Tokyo Story - Criterion Collection ImageTokyo Story - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-10-28; DVD
Best price: $24.45
Price in other shops: $39.95
Sansho the Bailiff - Criterion Collection ImageSansho the Bailiff - Criterion Collection
IMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $24.91
Price in other shops: $39.95
Compare prices and read customer reviews for more than one million DVD titles.
Oscar 2005 Winners