森鴎外の同名小説を、八尋不二と依田義賢が共同で脚色し、溝口健二がメガホンをとった文芸作品。特に美術と撮影はレベルが高く、ヴェネチア国際映画祭で銀獅子賞を受賞した。美しいラストシーンは、ゴダールが「気狂いピエロ」において引用したことでも知られる。 平安時代末期、農民を救うため将軍にたてついた平正氏が左遷された。妻の玉木、娘の安寿と息子の厨子王は越後を旅している途中、人買いにだまされ離ればなれになってしまう。玉木は佐渡に、安寿と厨子王は丹後の山椒大夫に奴隷として売られた。きょうだいはそれから十年もの間、奴隷としての生活を続けるが、ついに意を決して逃げ出すことにする。しかし追っ手に迫られ、安寿は厨子王を逃すため池に身を投げるのだった。
映画化された原作や関連書籍を読んで、映像との違いや独自の世界観を楽しみましょう。
When a benign provincial governor tries to intervene to protect his people from the brutality of the military, he is stripped of his rank and banished. His wife and children are forced to follow him, on foot, some time later and hopelessly ill-equipped for that task they fall prey to people traffickers who split the family up. The young daughter and son soon find themselves bought by the eponymous character and forced into cruel manual labour that only his son "Taro" (Akitake Kôno) seems at all concerned about. Can he help? Can they manage to keep some semblance of their erstwhile decency and nobility in the face of such indifference and oppression? Will the family ever reconcile? This is a glorious film to look at. The photography is dark, gloomy and hugely effective at eliciting a feeling of sorrow for the children as they struggle to survive in their new lives. There are glimmers of optimism, but Kenji Mizoguchi manages our expectations well. There is no yellow brick road here, the sunlit uplands are definitely there but we have no idea when (or if) one or other or neither of the children may ever reach them. The acting is poised and characterful - especially the young "Anju" (Kyôko Kagawa) who tries to look out for her initially weak and vulnerable younger brother "Zushio" (Yoshiaki Hanayagi). It is beautifully scored with a mixture of Japanese and classical themes that compliment well the contrasting images of poverty, wealth, cruelty and kindness of this story of barbarity and revenge. The cinematography does benefit from a big screen - it makes the story and the imagery all the more impactful, but even on a television this is is two hours that truly keeps you gripped.
