Admission UCB Students: 50 cents
Others: Regular Viewing Member ticket prices

In 16th-century Japan, Genjuro and his brother-in-law Tobei set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory, respectively. Two parallel tales ensue in which the men are lured from their wives (one of whom is killed, the other of whom becomes a prostitute). Phantoms and ghosts are evoked in imagic scenes, and fantasy and reality are inseparable, making Mizoguchi's stylistically superb film a powerful study in psychology and an intense tragedy.
“Mizoguchi's depiction of his characters' 16th-century world has an almost palpable air of realism, with impeccable period reconstructions and an all-pervasive sense of continuous war.... Though Mizoguchi saw in it a parallel to postwar Japan and its problems, its success clearly lies beyond its own time. Both allegorical and realistic, it is an intensely moving film experience.” -Georges Sadoul, “Dictionary of Films”