A two-pack of late films from Kenji Mizoguchi, the man many would rate, even above Ozu and Kurosawa, as the greatest Japanese director. Set in the pitiless feudal world of 11th-century Japan, Sansho Dayu – perhaps his finest film – traces the downfall of an aristocratic family. Mizoguchi melds cool visual grace with intensity of emotion, his camera unfurling elegant panning shots like a Chinese scroll painting. Gion Bayashi has a modern setting, but the outlook for its female characters is scarcely less bleak. In Gion, a teenage girl is trained in the arts of the geisha. But the age-old conventions are under attack – the boundaries between the poised social skills of the geisha and the mercenary transactions of prostitution are eroding. E
DVD Extras:
Each film sports an erudite intro from Oriental-cinema expert Tony Rayns, and there’s a 96-page booklet including articles, archive illustrations and Mori Ogai’s source story for Sansho Dayu.
