Sansho Dayu

A short introduction to Kenji Mizoguchi's cinematic masterpiece Sansho Dayu, one of the very greatest films ever made. Contains two essays offering two different perspectives and evaluations. Carole Cavanaugh compares and contrasts the film with its literary sources and lauds Mizoguchi's version as a profoundly beautiful vision of indissoluble family ties and a trenchant critique of the Confucian militarism implicit in some earlier versions of the story. Dudley Andrew examines the socio-political aspects of the film's creation & international reception and criticizes what he perceives as Mizoguchi's bleak existentialist vision, quietism, and "inhuman humanism". Each essay contains much useful information and many interesting insights. The prose is clear but a bit stiff and academic.