The most famous of all Mizoguchi films is based on two ghost stories by Ueda Akinari, written in the 18th century but set earlier, amid the civil wars of the 16th. Rural potters Genjuro and Tobei set off to Kyoto to sell their wares, unaware that their village has been sacked by marauding samurai. Heading home, their paths diverge: Tobei absurdly tries to fulfil his dream of becoming a soldier, while Genjuro is seduced by a mysterious, ghostly noblewoman in her villa on the shore of Lake Biwa. As events take their course, both men receive salutary shocks. Mizoguchi uses conventions from the noh theatre stage to depict the mysterious Lady Wakasa, but the film as a whole is rooted in a kind of lyrical historical realism. Simple human values come up against transient follies and vanities, to supremely moving effect. This masterly film won Mizoguchi two more Venice prizes.

Restored by The Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation at Cineric Laboratories in New York. Special thanks to Masahiro Miyajima and Martin Scorsese for their consultation on this restoration. Restoration funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in association with The Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation.