Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Ugetsu (1953) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Machiko Kyō, Mitsuko Mito, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori, Eitarō Ozawa, Sugisaku Aoyama DIRECTOR: Kenji Mizoguchi CINEMATOGRAPHY: Kazuo Miyagawa MUSIC: Tamekichi Mochizuki, Ichirō Saitō PRODUCTION: Daiei Film

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Ugetsu (1953). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Along with Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon (1950), Ugetsu is credited with having popularised Japanese cinema in the West. Mizoguchi cemented his reputation among film aficionados in Europe with his film Sansho the Bailiff (1954). Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff made an impact on French New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, and U.S. director Paul Schrader, who sought Kazuo Miyagawa for advice on the film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985). Indian filmmaker Rajendra Nath Shukla's Mrig Trishna (1975) is inspired by Ugetsu Monogatari.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Development

200px|After the success of his previous film The Life of Oharu (1952), Mizoguchi was offered to make a film by his old friend Masaichi Nagata at Daiei Film studios. The deal promised Mizoguchi complete artistic control and a large budget. Despite this, Mizoguchi was eventually pressured to make a less pessimistic ending for the film. Mizoguchi's screenwriter and long-time collaborator Yoshikata Yoda said that originally, Mizoguchi did not envision making an anti-war film, instead wishing to capture the sensations and lucidity of Ueda's book Ugetsu Monogatari.

Mizoguchi based his film on two stories from Ueda's book, "The House in the Thicket" (Asaji ga Yado) and "The Lust of the White Serpent" (Jasei no In). "The Lust of the White Serpent" is about a demon who appears as a princess and attempts to seduce a man. It was the basis of the plot in which Lady Wakasa seduces Genjūrō. "The House in the Thicket" gave the film its ending, in which the protagonist returns home after a long absence, only to meet the spirit of his lost wife. The film is set in the 16th century, though "The House in the Thicket" is set in the 15th century and "The Lust of the White Serpent" is set in an earlier time frame. Other inspirations for the film's script include Guy de Maupassant's Décoré! (How He Got the Legion of Honour).

Despite initial intentions, as the film developed, Yoda said anti-war messages, particularly about how war makes women suffer, kept surfacing and soon became the most prominent theme.

▸ Casting

The film was Machiko Kyō's second collaboration with Mizoguchi, as she had a small role in The Three Danjuros (1944). She had collaborated much more frequently with Masayuki Mori. As Lady Wakasa, Kyō's costume was modeled after fashion before the Edo period and her face was designed to appear similar to a mask common in Noh theatre. As such, her eyebrows were styled using a practice known as hikimayu.

Kinuyo Tanaka, who played Miyagi, found the scene where she is a ghost to be the most stressful, as she had to play a ghost and appear to be an actual wife at the same time. After rehearsals and the shooting, Mizoguchi lit a cigarette for Mori, indicating his rare degree of satisfaction with the scene. Eitaro Ozawa, who played Tōbei, said the actors frequently rehearsed alone, or with the cinematographer, while Mizoguchi was willingly absent during these preparations.

▸ Filming & Locations

200px|Mizoguchi told his cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa that he wanted the film "to unroll seamlessly like a scroll-painting". The film has been praised for its cinematography, such as the opening shot and the scene where Genjūrō and Lady Wakasa have sex by a stream and the camera follows the flow of the water instead of lingering on the two lovers. To achieve the appearance the filmmakers wanted, Miyagawa kept lighting low and filmed as near to sunset as circumstances would allow.Miyagawa also stated that this film was the only occasion in which Mizoguchi complimented him for his camera work.

The set depicting Kutsuki Manor was based on the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto. These sets are decorated with props evocative of feudal-era aristocrats, such as kimono and armor, personally chosen by Mizoguchi. Miyagawa identified this as one of the scenes shot from a crane.

[Filming] 200px|Mizoguchi told his cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa that he wanted the film "to unroll seamlessly like a scroll-painting". The film has been praised for its cinematography, such as the opening shot and the scene where Genjūrō and Lady Wakasa have sex by a stream and the camera follows the flow of the water instead of lingering on the two lovers. To achieve the appearance the filmmakers wanted, Miyagawa kept lighting low and filmed as near to sunset as circumstances would allow.Miyagawa also stated that this film was the only occasion in which Mizoguchi complimented him for his camera work.

▸ Music & Score

150px|For the film score, Mizoguchi relied on composer Fumio Hayasaka and the assistant directors, and was not involved in their creative process. For Ugetsu, he employed geza music, common in Kabuki theatre. Additional, uncredited composers were Ichirō Saitō and Tamekichi Mochizuki, whose music was blended with Hayasaka's, and could provide accurate music reflective of the period.

The score employs drums, flutes and chanting.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 2 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ Silver Lion (Venice Film Festival)

Nominations: ○ Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (28th Academy Awards)

Additional Recognition: Ugetsu won the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival in 1953. and won two awards at the 8th Mainichi Film Awards.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Ugetsu is often regarded as a masterwork of Japanese cinema and a definitive piece during Japan's Golden Age of Film. It is one of a number of films arguably more popular in western countries than in Japan. Japanese film historian Tadao Satō remarked that while this film, along with Mizoguchi's other works of the period The Crucified Lovers and Sansho the Bailiff, was probably not meant specifically to be sold to westerners as an "exotic" piece, it was perceived by studio executives as the kind of film that would not necessarily make a profit in Japanese theaters but would win awards at international film festivals.

The film was immediately popular in western countries and praised by such film critics as Lindsay Anderson and Donald Richie. Richie called it "one of the most perfect movies in the history of Japanese cinema" and especially praised the beauty and morality of the film's opening and closing shots. Richie analyzed how the film starts with "a long panorama" and shots spanning from a lake to the shore and the village. He judged the ending's "upward tilting panorama" from the grave to above to reflect the beginning.

The film appeared in Sight & Sound magazine's top 10 critics poll of the greatest films ever made, which is held once every decade, in 1962 and 1972. In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, it was voted the 50th greatest film of all time. Ugetsu currently holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 reviews, with a weighted average of 9.40/10. The site's critical consensus states, "With its thought-provoking themes, rich atmosphere, and brilliant direction, Kenji Mizoguchi's is a towering classic of world cinema". Roger Ebert added Ugetsu to his Great Movies list in 2004, calling it "one of the greatest of all films", and said that "At the end of Ugetsu, aware we have seen a fable, we also feel curiously as if we have witnessed true lives and fates".