Ugetsu

Ugetsu (1953) is a Japanese period ghost story directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, based on tales from Ueda Akinari’s 1776 book. It won the Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and is regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese cinema.

Plot: During the civil wars of the Sengoku period, potter Genjūrō and his brother-in-law Tōbei, who dreams of becoming a samurai, travel to sell pottery, leaving Genjūrō’s wife Miyagi and their son behind. Tōbei buys armor and wins glory by dishonest means, but his wife Ohama is assaulted and forced into prostitution in the meantime. Genjūrō is seduced by Lady Wakasa, a noblewoman who is really a ghost, and forgets his family until a priest protects him with sacred symbols and he escapes. He returns home to find Miyagi seemingly alive, but learns the next morning that she was killed by soldiers and he had only seen her spirit. Tōbei, humbled, reunites with Ohama, and Genjūrō raises his son, who leaves food at his mother’s grave.