Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff)

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This text looks at Mizoguchi Kenji's film, Sanshô Dayû (Sansho the Bailiff, 1954), a version of one of Japan's most famous folk legends about an eleventh-century feudal official forced into exile by his political enemies. In his absence, his children are separated from their mother and enslaved by the malevolent Sansho.

A heartbreaking tragedy in form, rooted in elemental aspects of Japanese society, Sanshô Dayû is also a modern artwork made in the aftermath of World War II, which reflects on old and new values. It was responsible as much as any other film for bringing Japanese cinema to the rapt attention of Western audiences. This book brings out the film's cultural, aesthetic and contextual nuances.