The film is full of spirit, mystery, and secluded atmosphere. With various Japanese percussion soundtracks, it always leaves the audience in a miserable state. His photography is also very beautiful. The scene of boating to the market town in a foggy night, the water and the sky are the same color, and the distance is mysterious and unpredictable. The whole composition is a mixture of oriental splash ink landscape and Western impressionist painting.
The film shows the wounds of civilians caused by war, and is also a Zen allegory about greed, ambition, desire and other themes. Its visual style is like a banner scroll painting. At the beginning and end of the film, you can see a panoramic horizontally moving long lens. There is a sense of tragic and illusory trance in the coherence of time and space.
The long-shot passage of "Dead Wife Returning to the Soul" in the film is extremely expressive and expresses a powerful sense of space. The ingenious thing is that there is a spatial change in one shot. Genjuro turned around in the dark room and found that his wife had been cooking in the main hall. This episode was completed in a single shot. Goteken used pan and back. The way of the lens completes this incredible operation, and the use of this lens also produces a surreal texture. This operation without editing weakens the weird effect of "Return to Soul" and strengthens the emotional expression belonging to "human". Goteken abandons the close-up method and focuses on the panoramic operation, which is a good way to avoid excessive sensationalism. In the constant horizontal and vertical movement, the oriental charm is fully displayed.
"Tales of Ugetsu" is a movie full of oriental sentiment, like a moving ink landscape painting, ancient and quiet. Through the film, Goteken conveyed his respect and compassion for women. The shot scheduling of the film is also breathtaking. Taking the long shot near the end as an example, Mizoguchi does not show the mountains and dews, but unexpectedly plays with the transformation of time and space, showing Genjuro's longing for his passing wife. This shot has also become a documentary. A visual miracle in the history of film.
