Sansho Dayu (Sansho The Baliff)

1954 classic from Mizoguchi, this is a sensationally good film, technically and formally beautiful, in its storytelling both simple and reverberating with depths of feeling.
Let us look at the technical side first. Miizoguchi uses diagonal lines to indicate a sense, unlike the squares of Ozu, of very much a world outside the frame. This outside world is often burnt through the film, with much overexposure. This gives the sense of an outside world that is dangerous, that oppresses the characters, espeically redolent in the scene where the family huddle under a tree. It chimes with the film's theme of the inhumanity of man, and how there is but this small island, the family unit, to hold it together.
The formal compostion of the shots is active on occassion, but largely it opts for the wide views and a wonderful sense of stillness. The inbetween establishing shots are not moments of contemplation, but rather reverberate. The stillness is not a stasis; it is rather a reminder, a placing of an object in the context and time of the action.
And now for what is actually on screen. The acting is excellent, the lead male is hysterical at times, screeching, which gives an interesting, almost unhinged dynamic. The plot is not afraid to surpirse us, even if we perhaps always know what the emotional mood of the conclusion will be. The story is paced well. Perhaps it does overheat on occassion, but is told in a nicely simple manner, without unnecessary overelaboration of plot points (meaning quite large events can happen, can change, quite quickly). The final scene is a masterwork. Notice especially the small touches, the side characters who add such a sense of universal humanity to the work. We are thinking of the fisherman in the final piece.
Mizoguchi's work is similar to Ozu in some of its atmospherics, but is formally a little different. Outside of this comparison, the director is clearly a master, and we look to seeing many more of his finest works. Though they will have to do well to beat this.