FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Kenji Mizoguchi - Ugetsu 

Two brothers, one greedy, the other envious. During a time when the land was devastated by vagabond soldiers, they risk the welfare of their families, risking their lives by pursuing their interests. Kenji Mizoguchi tells her story in this great film - one of the best ever! Although his heroes are rough and uncouth, Ugetsu is a work of elegance and mystery. Even before it becomes clear, we feel that Ugetsu is a work of elegance and mystery: Ugetsu is also a ghost story. Ugetsu is opened by the landscape passing us by, even being rolled up - like a Japanese drawing or a scroll. We see a village. Heavy branches lie on the roofs of the houses so that the wind does not carry the roofs away. We get to know Genjuro (Masayuki Mori), a potter and Tobei (Eitaro Ozawa), a farmer. Shots fired from afar, the army approaches. Genjuro's wife begs him not to ride into town. Not in these times! She asks him to protect her and her son. But with the excitement of a fool, Genjuro insists on the ride. Tobei, just as crazy, insists on accompanying him. Genjuro returns with gold coins. He has captured a factory in the city. His wife, on the other hand, tries to make it clear to him that new clothes could never outweigh her love for him. But Genjuro has only one thing in mind: money, money and even more money. Almost furiously he gets back to work. Tobei meets a great samurai. He would like to ride along, but is chased away as a stupid farmer without armour. Soon the two men decide to go into town again - out of fear for their possessions. This time they want to cross the lake in a boat because it seems safer to them. The scene at the lake, it's the most wonderful one in the whole movie! In front of us a world full of haze and fog. The lonely boatman gives a warning of pirates. Genjuro leaves his wife and child behind at the coast, Tobei accompanies him. In the city Genjuro's work quickly pays off and so he is invited to the castle of the beautiful Lady Wakasa. She is impersonated by Machiko Kyo, one of the greatest Japanese stars ever! Meanwhile Tobei also leaves his family alone. Stupid and clumsy as he is, he kills a samurai and steals a skull. Thanks to this trophy he is honored by the top samurai with a following. The troop's way leads to the house of the Geishas, where Tobei finds out that his wife was raped and abducted by soldiers. She now works as a geisha. Meanwhile Genjuro is spellbound by Lady Wakasa's appearance. Her beauty, which, he says, is unparalleled in the world! Lady Wakasa praises the simplicity and perhaps he should have felt warned because he hears the voice of her dead father. He is whispered to leave his village and marry the beautiful one... Mizoguchi held the theory that a scene should be filmed in a shot. We know this view from great Japanese films of the time with the difference that Mizoguchi's camera never stays. It seems to float, moving through space, which is as beguiling as it is poetic. Morbidly the scenes in Lady Wakasa's castle as a priest sees Genjuro's face. Frightened, he stammers, one would see death in it! Something is there on his skin! They are symbols of an exorcism! Of course Lady Wakasa is a ghost, which we never doubted. Finally we also realize that her castle is in truth a ruin. In Ugetsu, however, there is a second spirit that appears quite unexpectedly. Just at the moment when both men return to their village and hope for forgiveness from their wives for their male blindness... The characters in Ugetsu are down-to-earth. But I would understand it as a comic character. However, the story itself seems to be taken from the old days of Japanese ghost theatre. Unlike western horror movies, Mizoguchi never tries to scare us. It's something else that drives him. Something very kind! At the end we saw a fable, but we also witnessed the ordinary life.