Sansho the Bailiff (1954) on Netflix
In eleventh-century Japan, a governor is banished for defending his people. His wife Tamaki and their children, Zushiō and Anju, set out to join him and are separated by slave traders.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb8.3/1020,155 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Tamaki's husband, a governor in eleventh-century Japan, is banished to a far province for defending his people, and she and her children Zushiō and Anju go to live with her brother. Before they part, the father tells Zushiō to be merciful to others and gives him a small statuette of Kannon. Years later the three set out to join him. On the road a priestess tricks them: Tamaki is taken to Sado and forced into prostitution, while slave traders bring Zushiō and Anju to an estate in Tango Province run by the bailiff Sanshō, where slaves are branded and brutalized. Sanshō's son Tarō, the second in command, is gentler and tells the children to survive until they can escape and find their mother.
Cast
- Yōko Kozonoas Kohagi
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In 1990, producers Robert Michael Geisler and John Roberdeau commissioned director Terrence Malick to write a stage play based on Sansho the Bailiff; a private workshop of it was staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in fall 1993, directed by Andrzej Wajda with sets and costumes by Eiko Ishioka.
- Sansho the Bailiff won the Silver Lion for best direction at the 15th Venice International Film Festival, which brought director Kenji Mizoguchi back to the attention of Western critics and film-makers after his earlier The Life of Oharu and Ugetsu.
