Ugetsu - tales under the rain moon
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Ugetsu - Tales under the rain moon (FRG) Tales under the rain moon (GDR) |
| Original title | Ugetsu Monogatari |
| Country of production | Japan |
| original language | Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| script |
Yoshikata Yoda , Matsutarō Kawaguchi |
| production | Masaichi Nagata |
| music | Fumio Hayasaka |
| camera | Kazuo Miyagawa |
| cut | Mitsuzo Miyata |
| occupation | |
| |
Ugetsu - Tales under the Rain Moon ( Japanese 雨 月 物語 , Ugetsu monogatari ) is a Japanese feature film from 1953 . The drama was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and the script was written by Yoshikata Yoda and Matsutarō Kawaguchi based on models by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant . The film was produced by Daiei .
action
In 16th century Japan there is civil war ( Sengoku Jidai ). Genjuro and Tobei sense the big business in the pottery trade and take great risks while fleeing from the advancing troops. Tobei wants to buy samurai equipment with the money he has earned so that he can finally leave the farm work behind, but his wife Ohama tries to dissuade him. Genjuro wants to give his wife Miyagi and son Genichi a better life. One day troops invade their village, and Genjuro, Tobei and Ohama head for town to sell the last of the goods while Miyagi hides in the mountains with Genichi.
The pottery business is doing very well, even the beautiful and mysterious lady Wakasa becomes aware of Genjuro and asks him to visit her property. There she reveals her love for him and wants to marry him, whereupon Genjuro, overwhelmed by her attraction and the dreamlike life in wealth, agrees. Tobei has since bought weapons and won the favor of a prince, but forgot Ohama, who was raped and now ekes out her existence as a prostitute. Miyagi is killed by soldiers at home.
Meanwhile, the Wakasa, the utterly dilapidated Genjuro, encounters a Buddhist monk who immediately notices the evil influence of a ghost on Genjuro: Wakasa is actually long dead. She returned to the people in search of true love and desperately pleads for her frightened loved one never to leave her. But Genjuro returns to his village, as does Tobei and Ohama.
Emergence
The script is based on Akinari Ueda's tales of moonlight and rain from the 18th century and was written by Mizoguchi's longtime screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda.
Although the story is mostly told from the point of view of the two men, especially Genjuros, the actual main characters are the three women. Using her experiences, Mizoguchi tries to depict typical dilemmas of women in society and their tragically unfulfilled longing for love. On the one hand there is Wakasa, the beautiful, rich woman of the world, who apparently has everything and yet is so desperately looking for true love. On the other hand Ohama, whose husband she forgets about the fulfillment of his own dreams and who has to go through unimaginable suffering. And finally Miyagi, who wants nothing from life but to lead a simple life with her family, sacrificing herself for it and only through this sacrifice brings her husband to his senses.
Mizoguchi contrasts these stories of suffering with endless tracking shots, exceptionally balanced composition, flowing fades and landscapes, photographed by Kazuo Miyagawa , who also worked for Akira Kurosawa .
reception
The film was released in Japanese cinemas on March 26, 1953 and was also successful outside of Asia. Together with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon - Das Lustwäldchen, Ugetsu - Tales under the Rain Moon increased the level of awareness of Japanese films in the western world.
Awards
At the Venice International Film Festival in 1953, the film was represented in the competition for the Golden Lion , which ultimately received no film. Ugetsu - Tales under the Rain Moon received the Silver Lion, along with five other films.
At the Mainichi film competition in 1954, Kisaku Ito won for Ugetsu - Tales under the Rain Moon and Gan in the category Best Production Design . Iwao Otani received an award for the film in the Best Sound category. At the 1956 Academy Awards , Tadaoto Kainoshō was nominated for Best Black and White Costume Design , but had to admit defeat to Helen Rose ( And Tomorrow I Will Cry ).
In 1962 and 1972, the film was voted one of the ten best films of all time in the ten-year survey of critics by Sight & Sound .
Reviews
The renowned American film critic Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on May 9, 2004, Ugetsu - Tales under the Rainmoon is one of the greatest films of all time. "The heroes are rough and fiery with ambition, but the style of the film is elegant and mysterious, and somehow you know before you are told that it is a ghost story," says Ebert. ( The heroes are rough-hewn and consumed by ambition, but the film style is elegant and mysterious, and somehow we know before we are told that this is a ghost story. )
literature
- Keiko I. McDonald (ed.), Ugetsu. Kenji Mizoguchi, director , New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8135-1862-8
- Elisabeth Scherer : Spooky woman's soul. Female spirits in Japanese film and their cultural-historical origins, transcript, Bielefeld, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1525-8
Web links
- Ugetsu - tales under the rain moon in the Internet Movie Database (English)