When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Ugetsu is a moral tale that if you chase finance and status, as opposed to love and family, it will ruin both you and others. Genjuro and Tobei are two neighbours in a tiny village that make ceramics together. When their village is invaded by the army, they flee by boat across river, in order that their goods might be sold without losing profit, leaving their wives and children behind. By chance they both reach positions of power, Genjuro, due to his ceramic skills, finds favour with the Princess and weds her, while Tobei earns enough money to buy his way into the Samurai, before earning the high position of Chief when he falsely claims the kill of another man. It is quite pointed and melodramatic, but I enjoyed the trip back in time to a vastly different culture, even if the events themselves were not pleasant. The shadowy lighting, along with the spiritual elements of ghosts and dreams, effectively create an enchanting mood.

This is a buddhist film, just not a secular buddhist film. I think the message Kenji Mizoguchi wanted to convey was that living in the present and appreciating what you have is the only way to reach nirvana. the scene where Tôbei, Genjurô and their wives are making their way to Nagahama in a river so foggy that they can only see directly in front of them is an allusion to their ignorance of the suffering they will endure. unfortunately, despite the two wives being central to the story, they only serve as accessories to the two brother's Tôbei and Genjurô's development as characters. the movie's message is a very moral one, yet one I personally don't agree with (sometimes what you have is really paltry) which makes the movie's subpar cinematography and indistinct music rather blatant. It's not the worst Japanese drama of it's time, but it doesn't hold a torch to innovators like Kurosawa and Kobayashi's work. Ugetsu in my opinion is overrated and hardly watchable a second time.

Ugetsu, or Ugetsu monogatari, took the world by storm when it was released in the 50s, helping to popularize Japanese cinema in the West. Even nowadays it is hailed as one of the best to come out of Japan. It tells the story of two families that try to seek their fortunes while a war rages near their lands. Its messages are those of knowing your place, not extending your reach, avoiding the temptations of glory and flesh, the safety of home and most importantly the fact that sometimes the past and the afterlife are not yet ready to leave this world.It's a multilayered story, focusing mostly on the husbands of the two families, as they travel to a distant marketplace in the midst of war in order to sell their pottery. Along the way they both face struggles and temptations that delay their return home. The contrast rises from the fact that whereas one of them is lead astray by his own need for glory, the other is seduced by a source he had no way of anticipating. Likewise the two wives deal with the missing of their husbands in very different manners, creating contrast.The reason why I haven't ranked this movie any higher is because I have slight problems with Japanese live action cinema in general. More accurately with its pacing. Ugetsu is a slow film. Its tone is also surprisingly flat, which is another thing I've often noticed in Japanese films. It's a cultural thing, I have no doubt about it, but the fact still remains that I have problems identifying with any of the characters or the events because they're all performed with minimal emotions. Horrible things happen, but the expressions on the people's faces hardly change. Or, when the characters finally show any emotions, they overact. Most of the emotions have to be read from the context or from the dialogue. This stems from the heavy traditions of Japanese theatre, and while I respect it, I simply don't like it.Ugetsu is an artistic film. It has heavy, deeply layered themes, archetypical plot and characters struggling against their fates. Definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a deeper movie experience. Personally I don't like it all that much, but I have a lot of respect for it.

Ugetsu monogatari is based on the homonymous collection of nine supernatural tales by Ueda Akinari, specifically on two of its stories; House Amid the Thickets (Asaji ga Yado) and Lust of the White Serpent (Jasei no In). Director Kenji Mizoguchi intended for the film to have an anti-war message, showing the horrible impact violence has on people. He mixes the realistic elements with ghost tales and gives the entire film an uneasy, supernatural mood. For example, Machiko Kyō, who played the ghost of lady Wakasa (and who is also known for her role in Rashômon, another film that introduced Japanese cinema to the West), had her face made up like a theatrical mask, to emphasize the element of illusion in every scene her ghastly character appears in.Mizoguchi's cinematography is very striking at certain scenes, but the parts that stand out the most are the foggy lake segment with its marvelous mixture of light and shadows, the scene when the second married couple throws the armory into the water, and, best of all, the shot of Wakasa and Genjûrô having fun on an open field with a big tree in the background.The music is certainly memorable too. The use of traditional instruments is very prominent in almost every scene and further attenuates the unsettling atmosphere. Mizoguchi wanted the plot to roll by like a parchment, and I think he certainly succeeded. The plot is very straight-forward and without tedium or unnecessary scenes. The ending is somewhat predictable, probably because I've seen the first story in Kobayashi's Kwaidan, which ended similarly.