For a majority of filmgoers, the names most usually associated with classic Japanese cinema are those of Kurosawa and Ozu. Yet during the early 1950s, at the same time that Kurosawa was becoming known to the public through the release of classics such asRashomonandThe Seven Samurai, another Japanese director, Kenji Mizoguchi, quietly came out with a trilogy of films--The Life ofOharu, Ugetsu Monogatari, andSansho the Bailiff--that are the equal of Kurosawa's in mastery, and that by any standard rank among the greatest and most enduring masterpieces of world...
For a majority of filmgoers, the names most usually associated with classic Japanese cinema are those of Kurosawa and Ozu. Yet during the early 1950s,...
