Sansho the Bailiff
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Synopsis
When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.
Picture 7/10
Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff receives a Blu-ray upgrade from Criterion, presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on a dual-layer disc. The transfer is delivered in 1080p/24hz.
We get a noticeable improvement over the DVD (like the lack of window-boxing around the frame,) though it’s not as significant as I would have hoped, and that probably has to do with the fact they’re simply reusing the same high-definition transfer that was the basis for the DVD. The Blu-ray improves over the DVD in all of the basic ways one would expect: the transfer is sharper, compression isn’t as big a concern (though I thought it still looked a tad noisy in places,) the image certainly looks far more natural and filmic, grain looks a bit more natural, and gray levels and shadow details are better.
But the DVD didn’t look that bad to begin with, and upscaled it looked pretty decent. The image is still a bit soft around the edges, probably more of a factor with the source materials than the transfer, and it doesn’t look like any additional clean-up has been done; it still presents a few tram line, some dust and dirt, and transition scenes can still look horrifically beat up. As mentioned before gray levels are better, but like the DVD’s presentation I found the image had a more silver-ish look, though this could be intentional. I had only seen the film previously on Criterion’s DVD so I can’t say for sure.
So since it’s the same transfer the same issues there previously are still there. Obviously it will depend on one’s set-up but the improvements over the DVD, while still noticeable, aren’t as significant as other Blu-ray upgrades from Criterion.
Audio 6/10
The film gets a lossless upgrade in a linear PCM 1.0 mono track, but I’ll admit I couldn’t find too much of a difference. It’s a bit sharper and volume levels are up a bit but it’s still limited by issues that are there and were obvious in the DVD. Music is still screechy and edgy in places, especially when it gets louder, and voices sound a little hollow and lifeless. Despite this, though, it’s been cleaned up nicely and, like with the DVD, I didn’t detect any significant damage or background noise.
Extras 7/10
Criterion has carried everything over, including the thick booklet, starting with an audio commentary by Japanese-literature scholar Jeffrey Angles. It may seem a little odd to have a literature scholar for a film (or at least, initially, I admit to finding it odd) though it proves to work in this case as he provides a large background on the original folk tale and the story by Ogai Mori, and how Mizoguchi has translated the film here. He talks about the stylistic choices made by the director to further enhance the story, the many changes he made, and Mizoguchi’s desire for the story to focus on the time period’s use of slavery (I can’t remember if it’s mentioned here but elsewhere in the supplements it’s mentioned that Mizoguchi was forced to focus less on this aspect by the studio.) Angles is well prepared and though I assume he is using notes it never sounds like he’s simply reading from them. Despite being dry in a few places it offers a wonderful look at the story, the adaptation here, and Japanese literature in general. A fine scholarly track.
Criterion then includes a few interviews starting with Performance, which presents an interview with actress Kyoko Kagawa. For 10-minutes the actress talks about her early work and then the character she plays in Sansho. From here she then talks a bit more about what it was like to work with Mizoguchi, who never really told her what to do, but expected her and others to reflect on their characters.
The 15-minute segment entitled Production presents assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka recalling his work on the film. He explains his duties and how it was approaching the director with suggestions or issues that had come up. He also talks a bit about the film, which he doesn’t consider Mizoguchi’s best. He also brings up how the studio forced the director to tone down the slavery aspect and amp up the brother’s and sister’s struggle, so the film isn’t entirely what Mizoguchi intended.
Simplicity is the final segment, delivering a 24-minute interview with Japanese film critic Tado Sato. He first talks about Mizoguchi’s films as a whole, particularly the social themes and their depiction of women. He then talks specifically about Sansho the Bailiff and the stories that were the basis of it before talking about his style which consisted of lengthy takes (and the slight movements of the camera to more or less keep the scene interesting) and how he worked with actors, again bringing up how Mizoguchi wanted his actors to “reflect.”
In all we get a short batch of interviews, but they all offer great value to the release about Mizoguchi’s work method with a couple of firsthand accounts.
Considering the high regard of the film I would have admittedly expected more disc content but Criterion steps it up a bit and adds a rather lengthy 80-page booklet. It starts with a lengthy essay by Mark Le Fanu and is then followed by two representations of the story that the film is based on: Sansho the Steward by Ogai Mori (and translated by J. Thomas Rimer) and then An Account of the Life of the Deity of Mount Iwaki, which is a translation of the one of the original folk tales.
Overall it’s still not the edition I would have expected for the highly regarded film but Criterion has put some solid supplements together focusing on the original tale and the adaptation.
Closing
It looks more natural and presents less compression in comparison to the DVD, and the Blu-ray also lacks the window-boxing found on the DVD, but the improvements are more subtle than significant so its ultimately up to those that already purchased the DVD as to whether the upgrade is worth it. For those that don’t yet own the film but do want to the disc comes recommended.
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