Sansho the Bailiff

Journeying to reunite with their noble patriarch, a lord exiled for many years for an unpopular decision that would have benefited his subjects, a mother is duped, captured, separated from her son and daughter, sold as a slave to a brothel while her children are beholden to the sadistic warden of the title while they dream of rejoining. Kenji Mizoguchi Sansho the Bailiff, from a short story by Mori Ogai, is a mournful dirge shot in stark, spectacular cinematography. *** 1/2 out of ****