Sanshô Dayû

Dudley Andrew and Carole Cavanaugh

London: British Film Institute, 2000; Pages: 78

This short study comprises two essays on the 1954 film SANSHO THE BAILIFF by the renowned Japanese director Mizoguchi Kenji.

The first essay by Carole Cavanaugh is on the literary sources on which the story is based and Mizoguchi's rendition of the classic 11th century tale. The focus of comparison is not, however, with the original texts (of which there are several versions), but with Mori Ogai's 1915 narrative, which is firmly steeped in the Confucian interpretation. In fact, the analysis can roughly be divided in three parts: The first deals with Confucian politics with their emphasis on rational regeneration occasioned by good rule. This approach, in which a rehabilitated Sanshô rules over content slaves is so blatantly unrealistic, that Ogai had to rework the story into a fairy-tale, complete with dreams and miraculous happenings. Mizoguchi's version is much more brutal, has no supernatural elements, and does not shy from depicting the horrors of slavery and separation.

The second part is the treatment of the film as a "melodrama of post-war uncertainty" of which Mizoguchi's invention of the cause of Taira no Masauji's downfall --- his liberal idealism and the belief that all human beings are equal in the right to happiness --- forms a central part. Of course, such an attitude from a Heian aristocrat is of dubious historical accuracy, but it allows Mizoguchi to "modernize" the tale to speak to recent Japanese experience.

Interestingly enough, the most significant part of the analysis is not accorded a separate heading. This is, I believe, is the influence of the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism that are evidence throughout the film, especially in the emphasis that "the achievement of salvation requires the aid of another" (p. 27). This is central to the film because it brings into focus the pivotal role of Anju in the transformation of her brother, a salvation of a man by the devotion of a virtuous woman is a frequent motif in Mizoguchi's work.

The essay by Andrew deals with the cinematic rendition of the story in more detail. It makes several notable contribution to our understanding of the film (e.g. the notes on the misleading English subtitles), and has an interesting account on the Kurosawa-Mizoguchi debate (a much misguided, in my opinion, controversy that raged among professional fans of both directors, who were engaged in a futile argument to determine which one is the more talented) that sheds some light on the different approaches by the two great auteurs. On the whole, however, this essay is much less useful and not nearly as enlightening as the first.

July 18, 2001. BLS

@BOOK{andrew-cavanaugh-00:sansho,
    TITLE     = {Sans\^{o} Day\^{u}},
    AUTHOR    = {Dudley Andrew and Carole Cavanaugh},
    YEAR      = {2000},
    PUBLISHER = {British Film Institute},
    ADDRESS   = {London},
    ISBN      = {0-85170-541-3},
    NOTE      = {Pp. 78}
}