Ugetsu Monogatari = Tales of the pale and silvery moon after the rain

An unforgettably haunting film in every sense, this film is adapted from two stories in a collection of ghostly tales by the eighteenth-century writer Akinari Ueda, and Guy De Maupassant. Genjuro, a poor potter trying to make a living in a war-torn medieval village, is lured away from his devoted wife and young son by the mysterious Lady Wasaka who turns out to be a ghost. When Genjuro returns home repentant, his wife, too, has become a ghost after being murdered by stragglers weary from battle. Mizoguchi’s depiction of the past is vivid, richly detailed but not in the least romantic. For all its panache, the age he shows us is one of cruelty, oppression, and often appalling casual brutality. Cast includes Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka and Machiko Kyo. In Japanese with English subtitles.