Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Ed-from-HI The sincere beauty of Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece Sanshô Dayû (aka Sansho the Bailiff) from 1954 is made even more persuasive due to its inherently understated, subtle (even humble), but philosophically resonant Japanese/Asian Cinematic style in which genuine emotional 'power' is authentically generated thru restraint by directly contrasting outward societal 'quiet complacency' versus paradoxical inner torment/ sparking the courage to steadfastly counter-act experienced injustices (which were many during Japan's 'Heian' feudal period, when this story took place).But there is also much about Kenji Mizoguchi's film's irresistible emotional resonance  that is actually somewhat difficult to fully understand, since this story seems so simple upon first glance (with source material by Ogai Mori), dealing with a Mother and two children sold into slavery and the subsequent horrors witnessed and terrible sacrifices experienced, with arduous attempts made to ultimately right some of these relentlessly inimical wrongs.Suffice to say that a central theme is the preservation and actual honoring of 'humanity'  thru acts of genuine empathy and merciful deeds (even after experiencing extremely unsympathetic circumstances). Much credit must go to the three gifted-thespian Leads in meticulously conveying the accumulated torment/anguish/and resolve inherent to these sensitive but steadfast characters: Kinuyo Tanaka (as Mother) and as the grown children, Kyoko Kagawa (as Anju) and Yoshiaki Hanayagi (Zushio) and, of course, Eitaro Shindo (as Sansho).Watching Kenji Mizoguchi's 'Sansho the Bailiff' represents one of those rarefied Cinematic experiences that will leave you with an indelibly-changed (hopefully for the better) outlook pointing toward the potential for 'humanity' to eschew the easy (well-trodden) path of self-interest and conversely seek/traverse the more challenging but rewarding path of 'common-good'  Kenji Mizoguchi's Cinematic message is not preachy or didactic by any means, but "Sansho the Baliff's positive impact is still undeniable.

sharky_55 For almost the entirety of the one hundred and twenty four minutes, the characters are tiny, insignificant figures. Mizoguchi has a rigid, classical style deeply steeped in composition; the scene has already been etched in with lines and placements and blocking, so what is the use in moving the camera? This approach mimics the sedentary lives of the characters. Their menial work is confined to a square, and when they walk, it seems to be with no destination in sight at all. When the non-slaves move it is with an illusion of purpose - they seem convinced that there is something of a cause to aspire towards, and travel in nameless horde. Mizoguchi never graces them with a closeup, and in a suicidal sacrifice that would haunt even the most steady viewer, he robs even this act of its agency, and suggests that her body has the impact of little more than a stone spreading ripples through the lake's surface.So there are two truly great scenes here that shatter this apparent idyllic illusion. The first is the riot and revolution as the ex- slaves rise up and tear down their former master's mansion. Mizoguchi's crisp lines and segments are utterly demolished in fire and frenzy - the camera struggles to fully capture the extent of the chaos. This would not have happened without that teary outburst from Zushio, former slaver to former slave, freeing them from their captivity and urging them to go live their lives. It is tremendously powerful because he has been both literally and figuratively shackled for his entire life, so the emotional outpour is not only for those he addresses, but for his own release. The second is the final shot. Zushio has been told that his long lost mother has surely been reclaimed by the elements, by the recent tidal wave. This recalls Anju's death - who seemed to go willingly and of her own accord, but which Mizoguchi made so painful and inevitable with the threat of the slaver's torture. When Zushio finally reconciles with Tamaki there is an outpouring of both grief and happiness in conflict. She says that they have been pulled together by fate only because he has never wavered by his late father's two commands; to be merciful to all, because all men are born equal and entitled to happiness. And yet Mizoguchi pans away from what seems like closure...once again to the sea, which is only biding its time to once again swallow these tiny little figures. How much of this shoreline has it eroded?

poe-48833 "Set in an era when mankind had not yet awakened as human beings," SANSHO THE BALIFF is more about the victimization of the Poor than anything else- especially a widowed woman and her two children: she ends up being kidnapped and sold into prostitution while the children are sold as slave laborers to the dastardly Sansho (whose screen time is kept to a minimum; he's the Catalyst here, but little more). Mizogushi's carefully measured pace makes for compelling Cinema and, as in other films, one of his chief concerns seems to be the mistreatment of the Downtrodden. It's interesting to find that even in ancient fairy tales, Republicanomics was responsible for making lives miserable.

Robert J. Maxwell After the first twenty minutes or so I wasn't expecting too much from this production, despite the cachet of the director's name. A humanistic governor of a rural Japanese village in the feudal era is sent into exile and his wife and two children must wander the roads. They run into bandits. The mother is sold into slavery on one island and her little boy and girl are slaves on another. Innumerable tribulations follow and I worried this might turn into a 1954 Japanese version of torture porn.By this time, though, I noticed a couple of interesting things about the film. One was that every shot -- and I mean every single shot -- was done with the eye of a painter. The compositions were nearly perfect.Another thing I noticed was -- well, have you ever seen one of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns? Or any of their imitations? You know, the movies that are full of greasy faces in choker close ups, the bone-white teeth glistening out at you? If you have, then imagine the opposite. I only saw one close up in the entire movie, and that comes near the end when the identity of a blind, lame old woman on the beach is revealed. In the absence of close ups, even a medium shot, or a shot of someone from the waist up, is a bit of a shock.Anyone who's kept his eyes open will be familiar with the mistreatment of slaves. The forms they take seem universal. You get separated from your family, the women serve as whores, they're beaten for infractions, and if they try to run away they're branded or they have their Achilles' tendon cut.After eight years of suffering, the young boy, Zushio manages to escape from the manor of the slave owner Sansho, a Bailiff. He comes across one of those benefactors found in some stories -- "Ben Hur" or a tale by Dickens. As a result, he becomes governor of the province, frees all the slaves, arrests Sancho the Bailiff, and resigns his post in order to go in search of two slaves who had become his friends, as well as his sister and his mother. The results are mixed.When Zushio escapes, the pace of the film picks up and by the end I was thoroughly involved in the fate of the young man and his family. And that's despite the fact that this is not a Samurai movie. There is no swordplay or any genuine combat, although it could easily have fitted into the narrative.The story is rudimentary, not very complicated, and the movie is in black and white with subtitles. But this is a tragedy of the sort that is universal in its appeal. Well worth catching, as long as you have some patience during the establishing scenes.