Halloween 2022 Special Subject – The Haunted Mizoguchi – UGETSU (1953) and SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954)

Our Halloween 2022 subject is "The Haunted Mizoguchi," for which we looked at two films made by Kenji Mizoguchi toward the end of his life: the supernatural fantasy Ugetsu (1953) and a film we agree is a candidate for best movie ever made, Sansho the Bailiff (1954). We use Mizoguchi's explicit treatment of ghostly themes in Ugetsu as a springboard for discussing the haunting qualities of Sansho the Bailiff and the relationship between nature, the transcendent, and the miraculous in the film. We also consider the question of whether the film argues for political action or resignation as the best way of dealing with the systemic injustice from which we can't seem to escape and the threat of hopelessness.    Time Codes: 0h 1m 00s:        UGETSU (1953) [dir. Kenji Mizoguchi] 0h 34m 32s:      SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954) [dir. Kenji Mizoguchi] 1h 20m 29s:      Listener Mail with Daves and Elise – on Capra, Comics & Noir City      +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's piece on Gangs of New York – "Making America Strange Again" * Check out Dave's Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at [email protected] We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!