"In his period spectacles, of which The Taira Clan is most epic in scope,Mizoguchi resembles Shakespeare in his ability to establish a narrative viewpointthat is godlike in its omniscient serenity and wholeness; like Shakespeare also,he refuses to separate psychology from history in showing the life of men insociety." (Tom Luddy) In twelfth-century Kyoto, during a power strugglebetween the landed gentry and the monastic forces, a young man of the militaryclass seizes power and changes the course of Japanese history. Raizo Ichikawaplays the young samurai whose moral growth is at the core of the film. "Thefirst shot opens on a view of the distant mountainous horizon, held for a briefmoment of majestic calm before craning down into the middle of a vast chaoticmarketplace teeming with people. Seldom has a historical period been evoked sovividly as by this image of the brutal, frenzied, and uncertain daily life oftwelfth-century Kyoto." (Michael McKegney)