Review of Sansho the Bailiff

To me the tragic plot of "Sansho Dayu" is secondary to the scenic backdrop of this remarkable film. The lush woodland in the opening scene is diametrically opposed to the squalid encampment of Sansho where gnarled leafless trees punctuate the slave's plight. Rarely have I been so captivated by the "background" so much that it eclipses the narrative, although Kinoshita's "Twenty-four Eyes" glorious island setting and the whispering rushes in Shindo's "Onibaba", have much the same effect on me. The Sado island scenes are all the more poignant because this beautiful location is the prison for Zushio and Anju's mother. However it is the brief kidnap scene that I find myself returning to most.There is a stark minimalism here that evokes the Chinese watercolours of the Sung dynasty to the lament of a single bamboo flute, indeed the score is perfectly understated throughout. Mizoguchi's composition is second to none, both interior and exterior shots geometrically sensitive and precise. The sequence used for Anju's suicide cuts from an old woman, centrally framed by an open gate to Anju wading slowly into a lake then back to the old woman praying then finally to Anju's last gasp breaking on the ripples of the surface. This is an unforgettable scene at once heart-breaking and beautiful, the very essence of "mono-no-aware".