Sancho Dayu

Kenji Mizoguchi - 1954
In many ways this is a play of looking, seen in distance what is looked at, with the back turned to the camera, and the look, seen close up, where we don't see the other half of this double. This, as in the famous boat scene, is used in variations for the appropriate effect. In this sense, editing is key for all this; a deliberate edit, not always tied to narrative extrapolation.
We have that lovely dappled forest throughout, and many huge long shots; a finish again on the notion of work, the singular plowing the field, or beach here. I again felt, with the mysticism, the wide open islands, the idea of powers swirling, not settling.
I can't help but have to bring up fatalism; throughout this and other works of Mizoguchi, perhaps? A pile up of problems, what I dislike is the dramatic arc to them, which gives me a feeling of a sense of relish to them. To be fair, specific problems are dealt with (slavery, land rights), but really it seems more like the principle of misery is more at play than anything.