Movie Review: Sansho the Bailiff (1954) directed by Kenji Mizoguchi (Japanese title: Sanshou Dayuu)
The setting is the late Heian Period (around the Eleventh Century) in Japan. The popular governor of a northern province, Taira Masauji (Masao Shimizu), has incurred the wrath of a powerful military general because he would not raise taxes on the already suffering peasants to fund the general’s war aims. As a result, the governor is transferred to a remote southern province, basically exile. He’s not even allowed to take his wife Tamaki (Kinuyo Tanaka) and children Zushio (Masahiko Tsugawa) and Anju (Keiko Enami) with him, and they will have to make their own way to him. Masauji gives his son sage advice on the virtue of mercy and a family heirloom, a statue of Kwannon, Boddhisatva of mercy.
A few years later, Anju is finally old enough for the family to walk the long journey. With one older servant, they make their way across the country. They come to a province near the ocean, but learn that the area is so overrun with bandits and slave traders that the government has forbidden the sheltering of travelers who might be criminals in disguise. The family camps out, but it’s cold and wet, so when a priestess (Kikue Mori) offers to break the law and give them warm food and a dry place to sleep, they accept.
It is, of course, a trap. The priestess is in league with the slave traders. The old servant is killed, Tamaki taken to an island brothel to serve as a courtesan, and the children (not seen as particularly valuable due to their young age) eventually are sold to Sansho (Eitaro Shindo), bailiff of an estate belonging to the Minister of the Right. Sansho is a cruel master, who brands slaves who attempt to escape on the forehead. But he’s liked by his superiors because he extracts maximum taxes from the area and sends bribes up the pipeline. The children take on new names, Matsu for Zushio and Shinobu for Anju, to disguise their highborn origins.
Ten years of backbreaking labor and other hardships later, Matsu has become a hard young man, putting aside the teachings of his father and even helping brand escapees. Shinobu tries to soften his attitude, but he needs to survive. Then Anju by chance learns that their mother is still alive and where she is. Fate offers a chance for her and Zushio to flee their slavery, but is their destiny still to be tears?
This period piece drama movie is based on a short story by Ogai Mori, who adapted an older legend. The Criterion Collection DVD version I watched comes with a booklet containing a translation of both the Mori version and an oral history version of the legend with a different emphasis.
The movie’s version of the story backdates some modern humanistic ideas about mercy and the proper treatment of workers into Masauji’s advice to Zushio. This perhaps makes him a more sympathetic character as his later actions are not merely a reaction to his and his sister’s own treatment, but part of a larger life philosophy.
We also see the difficulties in reforming an unfair system. Sansho’s son Taro (Akitake Kono) is initially kind to the children, and disgusted with the way his father treats the slaves and corrupt officials, but finds it easiest to just “walk away from Omelas” and become a Buddhist monk. This salves his conscience and makes him helpful much later, but does nothing for Zushio and Anju or their fellow workers.
After the escape, Zushio’s true heritage becomes known, and he is made governor of Tango, the province where Sansho has his estate. Our protagonist wants to free the slaves, all the slaves, but is quickly and repeatedly reminded he doesn’t actually have the authority to do that. He has to break the system completely and accept the consequences of this to achieve his goal. (As opposed to the short story where he basically waves his hand and poof, no more slavery with no bad consequences.)
The ending is bittersweet. Zushio has freed the slaves and is reunited with his mother, but they have both lost so much in the process and become broken.
Good acting from all involved, interesting cinematic framing.
Content note: murder and suicide. Slavery. Branding and general abuse of slaves. Children in peril. Tamaki is forced into prostitution (not on screen). Due to the themes and slower parts of the movie I’d recommend older teens up.
This movie is more on the “serious cinema” wavelength than my usual fare. You may want to have some of the more “popular” Japanese films under your belt before tackling this one.
