Ugetsu - Kenji Mizoguchi
An allegorical tale that tells two interwoven stories of two heroes. The takeaways are clear but the way these messages are delivered is very alien to Western audiences.
Our two heroes are neighbors in a small village in feudal Japan. Genjuro is a potter and Tobei is a farmer and sometimes assistant to Genjuro.
Tobei dreams of fame as a mighty samurai and Genjuro wants to become an extremely wealthy pot merchant.
We move back and forth between the two heroes but do end up spending long periods with one and then the other. There are also long sections where they are together.
This in itself makes it quite different from many multi-story films we see today as there is generally a lot more moving back and forth between the two heroes.
The whole film from start to finish feels foreign. There is very odd music over the titles to set the scene and then we are slap bang in 16th century Japan. this is all the setup we are given.
The film allows us to enter this world and understand what is happening through the actions of the characters.
We quickly learn that we are in the middle of a war but our heroes are poor peasants so the war is just a backdrop and a hindrance in their stories.
Genjuro decides to risk a journey to a larger city to get a better price on his pottery. He returns successful and this fills him with dreams of wealth. He quickly sets to work doggedly making a giant batch of pots.
We quickly see this loving husband and father turn into a greed-driven jerk. His wife does her best to support him but he will not listen to her warnings of the coming army.
Tobei joins Genjuro in aiding to make the biggest set of pottery that Genjuro has ever fired. They just get it in the kiln and the army arrives.
Our heroes and their families just manage to escape but Genjuro quickly wants to return to check that the fire hasn’t gone out and save the pots.
The fire is out and Genjuro is initially beside himself, thinking that they have lost everything. But he quickly realizes that the pots have finished firing.
The two families decide to take a boat to an even bigger city to sell the goods.
On the journey they meet another boatman who warns them of pirates so Genjuro decides to put his wife and son ashore. They keep Tobei’s wife on board as she is a boatman’s daughter and can navigate well.
The pots sell extremely well and Genjuro is rich. During the market, a lady approaches him and asks him to deliver some pots to a fort.
Miyagi, Genjuro’s wife is killed by soldiers on the road back to their village. His son, Genichi escapes. This is brutal because we know what his greed has cost him but he has no idea.
Genjuro takes the order of pots to the fort which has lots of damage to it. It isn’t until they reach the inner sanctum that things look ok. The only people are the lady who bought the pots and her servant.
We quickly learn that things are wrong when the lady’s dead father starts singing the song they are singing. But Genjuro has deep lust for the lady.
He goes into town and wants to buy things for her but the storekeepers will not take his money after they hear where the goods are to be delivered. Genjuro refuses to see the truth of the situation.
A priest senses the evil surrounding him and tries to turn him from his path but he will not listen. The priest convinces him to let him ward the pot maker with holy writings on his body.
The wards break the spell and the servant reveals that they are both dead and they returned so the lady could fall in love.
Genjuro awakes to find the whole fort in ruin. Some guards take all his money and the sword that he took from the lady’s father during his escape – proving his guilt as a thief to the guards and the nightmare of the spirits to us and Genjuro.
Genjuro returns home and has dinner with his wife, yes the dead one, and son and they fall asleep. In the morning he learns the truth.
Throughout the early part of the film Tobei keeps trying to join up with the army but they will not have him without armour and a weapon.
So when they have made their money in the big city he immediately abandons Genjuro and his wife Ohama.
With Tobei and Genjuro gone Ohama tries to return home but she is captured a raped by the soldiers.
After buying his armour Tobei is lucky enough to come across a fleeing general who has one of his vassals cut his head off to save him the dishonour of the defeat.
Tobei then stabs the vassal in the back and takes the general’s head to the other camp for his reward.
They don’t believe that Tobei killed him but reward the peasants all the same. Tobei heads home at the head of an army.
He and his men are convinced to stop at a brothel on the way home and he finds that his wife is the main attraction there.
He sees the error of his ways gives up his samurai status and returns home with Ohama.
I think that the stories are really interesting and the film looks great. But I am still left feeling that Genjuro is hard done by. Sure he is super greedy but he does it for his family.
The action that he took to put his wife and child ashore was to protect them from the pirates. It just feels a bit rough. While Tobei is much more reckless and doesn’t work as hard towards his goal as Genjuro his punishment isn’t as bad. It’s a good film but a little disappointing in its resolution.
