Synopsis
"By the time he made
Ugetsu,
Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by
Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by
Akinari Ueda and
Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and fortune leads them far astray from their loyal wives. Moving between the terrestrial and the otherworldly,
Ugetsu reveals essential truths about the ravages of war, the plight of women, and the pride of men." – Criterion
