RESTORED DIGITAL PRESENTATION!
Long revered by cineastes, Kenji Mizoguchi's classic ghost story takes place in the war-torn 16th century, where two men — a peasant who yearns to become a samurai, and a potter who is seduced by an exquisitely beautiful woman who turns out to be a phantom — allow their weakness, greed, and pride to lead both themselves and their faithful wives to ruin. Mizoguchi's rigorous compositions and camerawork, his use of the mist-enshrouded landscape around Lake Biwa, the intense performances of two of Japan's greatest actresses (Machiko Kyo and Kinuyo Tanaka), and the theme of the illusory nature of human ambition and desire all contribute to a work of infinite beauty and significance. "Simultaneously realistic, allegorical, and supernatural, Ugetsu is the most stylistically perfect of all Mizoguchi's works" (David L. Cook).
