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Will show at the NYC Film Forum starting March 3. Will probably get a Criterion release in late summer.

an essay by film critic Phillip Lopate (Blu-ray and DVD) and three short stories that influenced Mizoguchi in making the film (Blu-ray only)

The original DVD issue had the large booklet with the three short stories.

I wonder if this implies a new way Criterion plans on upgrading DVD digipacks with hefty booklets

Bluray release gets a new digipak with a new printing of the booklet. DVD gets issued as a keepcase (rather than a digipack) and a pared down leaflet with just an essay.

Remember, the original Ugetsu was one of the most unique of the digipacks, in that it was presented like a two film box set, with separate holders and disc art for the feature film and the feature doc (although unlike the bigger box sets, the feature documentary wasn't given a spine number despite being presented like the feature docs in those sets) and of course the large booklet. Since the Bluray is only one disc (at the moment), it does look like we'll lose that aspect of the digipack.

Is one actually going to notice much improvement over the MOC BD on a mere 50-inch plasma TV? (Looking at the screen caps, I'm guessing not much),

Michael Kerpan wrote:Is one actually going to notice much improvement over the MOC BD on a mere 50-inch plasma TV?

One should, as the main difference between the two is the improvement in stability, which static comparison images can't show.

Here are some motion comparisons: 1, 2, 3.

Could anyone with the Criterion blu-ray share the transfer notes included in the booklet?

Moshrom! You're back and posting on your blog again!

Moshrom wrote:Could anyone with the Criterion blu-ray share the transfer notes included in the booklet?

Ugetsu 'About the Transfer' wrote:Ugetsu is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1... Supervised by Masahiro Miyajima and Martin Scorsese, this new 4K digital restoration was undertaken from a 35mm fine-grain positive and a 35mm duplicate negative at Cineric Inc. by The Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation, with funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from a 35mm optical soundtrack print and restored by Audio Mechanics in Burbank California.

This is a VERY pedantic question, but...has Criterion put a new copyright notice on the film itself?

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Mizoguchi is probably my favorite director whose body of films leaves me with feelings of (more than just occasional) ambivalence. Ugetsu embodies my problems with KM's work. I love most of the film (especially all the parts with ghosts) -- but find the imported (from France) would-be samurai sub-plot very unsatisfying. Still, I prefer this to Sansho, which I find almost totally bosh plotwise despite its often lovely visuals.

That's a fair bit kinder than me (though I agree that this is leagues ahead of Sansho which I find to be actively bad). Ambivalence is probably the right word though as I don't find Mizoguchi to have any serious missteps here, but it comes together into something that is only an okay product without any real weight to it. There's other films by him that find worse for either thematic or narrative reasons, but they at least get a reaction while I find this to be damning in its quiet pleasantness.

I'm at a total loss as to what both of you are talking about. Imported plots? Missteps? First of all, who but the director can say what aspects of his or her film are missteps? Further, the very nature of film is memory- individual and collective; how can a country (France??) have dominion on any particular filmic device or scenario? Ugetsu is all of a piece in my eyes; primarily, the destructive lengths to which man's illusions take him - literally and figuratively. Course, to a great extent, it"s the theme behind much great dramatic lit but this film is certainly the epitome of it in film.

UGETSU is one of those unassailable classics of all time cinema, and I'm afraid I've never gotten into it at all. A viewing in college left me unmoved, another viewing or two over the years, shrug. I picked up the Criterion DVD a while back, thinking I'd give it a whirl sometime, and it sat unwatched on my shelf. So when a brand new 4K digitalrestorationprojectionpalooza hit Film Forum, I decided I'd give it one more shot, after all, I'm more aware of that Mizoguchi guy than I had been, and time and life had passed, and if I could be bowled over by GRAND ILLUSION after so many years of Just Not Getting It At All, why not UGETSU?

Well, the magic kind of happened. I certainly appreciated the movie a great deal more than I ever had, the film's depiction of women and what they suffer at the hands of those idiotic creatures called men came through a lot clearer than it ever had, and a degree of reading about Mizoguchi and seeing some of his other work had me prepared for that. UGETSU is certainly gorgeous to look at, delicious black and white studio and location cinematography all over the place. It's just that, well, I never quite got as into it as I wish I had. I always felt outside what was going on, appreciating all the beautiful camerawork and splendid performances and music and all, but not really, you know, feeling it.

I mean, it's okay and all. The acclaim is, however, a mystery to me.

I don't think "quiet pleasantness" even remotely fits Ugetsu....

Watching UGETSU for the first time, I was mildly annoyed that it seemed that the theme is "Peasant, accept your lot, ambition will make you lose everything." It's the opposite of the Western Horatio Alger type success story. Of course, I'm aware that generally it's seen that the protagonist's problem was greed, and Tobei's was lust for power, or a delusion of grandeur. Yet, Genjuro is repeatedly shown wanting to buy nice things for the wife, his obsession with getting his goods sold is to improve the lot of his family.

Having said that, I enjoyed the film. It was my first viewing of a Mizoguchi, and I'm looking forward to watching more of his work. The crane shots, and mise-en-scene in general are wonderful. David Hare points out in the other thread that Mizoguchi admired and had met Von Sternberg, and I can certainly see the influence.

Honestly, I feel that's a reoccurring aspect of Mizoguchi's films owing to his particular brand of Buddhism. Whether or not that is a good thing I suppose is up to the viewer.

knives wrote:Honestly, I feel that's a reoccurring aspect of Mizoguchi's films owing to his particular brand of Buddhism. Whether or not that is a good thing I suppose is up to the viewer.

He was also a Marxist at one point, wasn't he?

OldBobbyPeru wrote:

knives wrote:Honestly, I feel that's a reoccurring aspect of Mizoguchi's films owing to his particular brand of Buddhism. Whether or not that is a good thing I suppose is up to the viewer.

He was also a Marxist at one point, wasn't he?

He was a socialist yes. I confess I'm unsure just how he managed to reconcile socialism with his brand of Buddhism.

There's a lot about the career of marxism/communism/socialism outside of Europe that's hard to understand.

To OldBobbyPeru's point, I had a somewhat similar reaction when watching Ugetsu for the first time. In the early going I was unsure if the Genjuro/Tobei combo was to be taken as comedic in tone - they seem like such bumbling idiots and so on. I understand that's the wrong impression but I still can't quite reconcile the high tragedy and humanistic pathos others see in the film with that pair.

I think Tobei definitely was meant as comic relief, but as the film develops, it's made clear that Genjuro is a master craftsman with his pottery, not at all a bumbling idiot like Tobei.

People complain about Tobei, and the actor's portrayal of him as being over the top, but isn't that style something derived from Japanese Noh/Kabuki theater? He's not that different from Mifune's clowny character in Seven Samurai.

I believe it's rather Mifune's acting style in Throne of Blood that are an example of the Noh style in film? I think the Tobei-figure is played in a more broad fashion, reminding me of the pair in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (which probably orginally predisposed me to look for comedy).

I definitely understand the more uneven reactions, but I find Ugetsu's highs (Genjuro outside the ruins of the Kutsuki estate, the famous lake scenes, and Genjuro's achingly sad return home to the illusory Miyagi) to far outweigh its weaker points.

OldBobbyPeru wrote:Watching UGETSU for the first time, I was mildly annoyed that it seemed that the theme is "Peasant, accept your lot, ambition will make you lose everything." It's the opposite of the Western Horatio Alger type success story. Of course, I'm aware that generally it's seen that the protagonist's problem was greed, and Tobei's was lust for power, or a delusion of grandeur. Yet, Genjuro is repeatedly shown wanting to buy nice things for the wife, his obsession with getting his goods sold is to improve the lot of his family.

I think in Genjuro's case, Mizoguchi makes clear from the very beginning that the pottery merchant is too willing to risk his life (and by extension his family's well-being) when he runs off to sell his pottery even as the war draws closer; that he's rewarded for this risk only makes him more reckless in directly putting his family danger by coming down the mountain to check on the kiln, and then leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves against maurauding armies long before he comes under the spell of Lady Wakasa. Losing what little one has when obsessed with improving one's lot in life is a recurring theme in literature and film from all cultures, and Miyagi's support of his pottery work I think illustrates that its not his ambition to better his place in the world in and of itself that is Genjuro's downfall, but that he loses sight of his responsibilities to his family.

DarkImbecile wrote:Losing what little one has when obsessed with improving one's lot in life is a recurring theme in literature and film from all cultures, and Miyagi's support of his pottery work I think illustrates that its not his ambition to better his place in the world in and of itself that is Genjuro's downfall, but that he loses sight of his responsibilities to his family.

Good point, especially about this theme appearing in literature and film from all cultures. I was similarly annoyed by Visconti's LA TERRA TREMA for the same reasons. I see what you're saying about the distinction of losing sight of his basic responsibilities.