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Sansho the Bailiff Movie Review

Sansho the Bailiff is a 1954 Japanese period film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and starring Kinuyo Tanaka. It is a very good, but somewhat overrated movie.

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“Without mercy,

man is not a human being“

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In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression. This movie is full of misery and devastation that it felt one-note and to me rather exhausting to watch. It is definitely moving at times, but the repetitive tone of despair grew tiresome very quickly for me. The ending is quite memorable and very touching, but the rest of the story was forgettable.

There is this clear juxtaposition of highly emotional scenes set in what is the darkest period in human history – the medieval times where inhumane brutality reigned. That contrast, though odd at first, did work as it was put into the modern context of the twentieth century. It was further strengthened by being positioned in the fifties just after WWII, which was another hard blow at humanity as we know it.

You would think that this movie is about this Sansho, but that title is thoroughly misleading. It is actually an entirely female-driven picture that depicts the plight of these slaves during the eleventh century in Japan. Tamaki and Anju are memorable and the movie does make you empathize with these poor souls, but the acting for the most part was overly theatrical and too melodramatic. The characterization left a lot to be desired too.

Where Sansho the Bailiff excels the most is obviously in the visuals. Its black-and-white cinematography is at times stark, but in certain scenes sun-drenched and simply gorgeous. Either way, the film is highly artistic, which surely must be the main reason why it is so deeply respected by the critics. The attention to detail in sets, costumes and imagery is staggering. The score is also very good and the editing is excellent.

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Although I respect this movie for its obvious cinematic merits, Kenji Mizoguchi just isn’t a director for me as I also did not fall in love with ‘Ugetsu’. His films are definitely empathetic and gorgeously artistic, but lacking in terms of a more memorable storyline and characters, which is surely the case here. They are also weakly paced and not as engaging as the best Japanese movies from this period.