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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
Japan
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Year
1954
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Genre
Period drama
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- The BAILIFF Alternative
- The BAILIFF SANSHO Alternative
- SANSHO THE BAILIFF Alternative
Introduction
“Mizuguchi was the master of the heroically sustained long take. Sansho the Bailiff is one of those films for whose sake the cinema exists.”
Gilbert Adair, Flickers: An Illustrated Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema, 1995
Riding a crest of international recognition for Japanese cinema, initiated by Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950), Kenji Mizoguchi’s late period of creativity for the Daiei studio interspersed modern-day dramas with several widely acclaimed period dramas (jidai-geki).
Sansho Dayu is set in Japan’s distant past and is the heartbreaking story of a brother and sister, the children of a noble governor, who are kidnapped and sold as slaves to the cruel bailiff Sansho (Eitaro Shindo). Years pass, and the divided mother and children grow desperate, then resigned.
Mizoguchi relays this tragedy – based on a novel by Ogai Mori with its basis in myth – with classical force. Filming in his signature long, flowing takes, the director builds inexorably to an emotionally devastatingly climax.
Tragic, disenfranchised women often take centre stage in Mizoguchi’s period epics, notably in The Life of Oharu (1952), about a daughter sold into prostitution.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Tamaki, Lady Taira, later 'Nakagimi'
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Zushiô, Tamaki's son, later 'Mutsu-Waka'
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Anju, Tamaki's daughter, later 'Shinobu'
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Sanshô the bailiff
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Tarô, Sanshô's son
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Morozane Fujiwara, prime minister
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Norimura, judge
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Masauji Taira, governor of Mutsu
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Sadayû, Masauji's bailiff
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Masasue Taira, Masauji's uncle
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Ubatake, Tanaka's family nurse
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Zushiô as a boy
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Zushiô as a child
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Anju as a child
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Miko, Shinto priestess at Naoe harbour
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slavedealer
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Kinpei, Sanshô's head guard
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Kichiji, Sansho's guard
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Kohagi, young slave
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Namiji, old slave
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Nio, old slave who tries to escape
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Kayano, slave
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Kaikudo Naito, finance minister's envoy
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owner of brothel on Sado
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Jirô of Sado
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Saburo Miyazaki
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Donmô, priest of Nakayama temple
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old priest
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justice of the peace
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prison guard
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new 'Nakagimi'
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Shiono
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Kanamaru
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man on Sado
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litter bearer
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gatekeeper
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man at Naoe harbour
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woman at habour
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guard
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prostitute
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prostitute
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farmer
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farmer
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farmer
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Credits
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Direction:
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Director
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Assistant Director
Production:
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Production Company
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Producer
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Production Manager
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Planning
Writing:
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Screenplay
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Screenplay
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Based on the novel of the same name by
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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Lighting
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Lighting Assistant
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Assistant Photographer
Editing:
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Editor
Design:
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Art Director
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Art Director
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Assistant Art Director
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Set Decorator
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Paintings
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Architectural Authenticity
Costumes:
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Costumes
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Costumes
Make-up:
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Make-up
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Hairstyles
Music:
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Music
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Traditional music
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Traditional music
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Music Director
Sound:
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Sound Recording
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Assistant Sound Recording
Stunts:
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Fight Consultant
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