A great compainion piece to 12 Years a Slave: Sansho the Bailiff

For those who can't imagine watch a b/w narrow-screen Japanese period piece from 1954, surprise yourself and check out Mizoguchi's unfortunately titled Sansho the Bailiff - unfortunately because the title conveys nothing of the movie's drama, themes, or emotions, which are abundant. What the hell's a bailiff, and Sansho's not even the main character, anyway. Story set in feudal Japan, a powerful leader refuses to pay tribute to the warlike emperor because his people are starving and they can't afford to give up resources - he's sent into exile. Sometime later, his wife sets off to re-join him, two young children in tow. The children are kidnapped and held for 10 years in slavery, in service to Sansho. Son escapes, through various ploys he rises to power in Japan, frees all the slaves in his province, then gives up his title, and finds his mother, near-blind, near-mad, aged and ruined, on an isolated island. That outline tells you that this is an epic, dramatic tale - but conveys nothing of the beautiful mood and sensibility - nor of the many powerful and beautiful sequences: the abduction of the children, as their mother gets hauled away by boat almost disappearing into the white sea; the celebration of the slaves upon their liberation, the final sequences of mother and son embracing on a seaweed-wracked beach. This film may remind many of the excellent Twelve Years a Slave; they make a good companion set - both about class, oppression, cruelty, the difficulty of opposing the barbarity of slavery. 12 Years is the more personal story - in Sansho the characters are less deeply developed, they're a little remote and we're not meant to truly identify with them. The actions are at times improbably and melodramatic - but this movie, as noted in its opening frames, is based on a folktale or legend and not meant to be taken quite literally. Yet it's one of those rare films that hold you start to finish, at 2 hours plus it didn't feel a moment too long.