TL;DR: I saw Ugetsu. Here are some drawings.
I remember...:
Genichi.
TL;DR: I saw Ugetsu. Here are some drawings.
I remember reading an article a while ago in which the writer was making the point, quite bitterly, that Kurosawa was over-rated as a director. Apart from the self-evident fact that basically all the ‘greats’ are over-rated to a greater or lesser extent (that’s the fault of the critic, not the director) it still seems a bit of a pointlessly antagonistic angle to take in an article. The writer was keen to point out that Kenji Mizoguchi is, in fact, Japans greatest director.
So I watched Ugetsu Monogatari. Initially, I was a little bit disappointed. It wasn’t bad, it just felt a little bit light. Like on the few occasions I’ve been to see a play, I couldn’t forget that I was sitting there watching adults pretending to do things. Some of the actors actions are a little bit perfunctory and, to come back to the article that sparked all this, I think a better director would’ve recognised that and coaxed better performances.
But that was only the beginning. It doesn’t take long before it becomes really engrossing and then, quite suddenly around half-way through, it takes off in a big way and becomes something much deeper and intense. None of the soap opera lightness of the first scenes.
So, in keeping with the needlessly pugnacious angle of the writer of that mystery article, I’d say Kurosawa remains my favourite Japanese director but it’s nice that there is some competition.
Anyway, here are some drawings I did based on the child of the main characters, Genichi.
