https://vo.rs/tags/kenji-mizoguchi/Latest from the Kenji Mizoguchi desk at vo.rs.Hugo -- gohugo.ioenThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000https://vo.rs/screen/ugetsu-mizoguchis-ghost-story-as-war-elegy/<p>Some films are shelved under horror because they contain a ghost, and the label undersells them. <em>Ugetsu</em> is a ghost story the way <em>Hamlet</em> is a ghost story — the phantom is real, and it is the least of what the film is about. Kenji Mizoguchi made it in 1953, eight years after Japan&rsquo;s defeat, and beneath its sixteenth-century tale of a bewitched potter runs a low, steady grief for what war does to ordinary people, especially the women left in its path. It is one of the most beautiful films ever made, and one of the saddest, and its ghost is a door into both.</p>Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000