Sugisaku Aoyama

"Quite simply one of the greatest of filmmakers," said Jean-Luc Godard of Kenji Mizoguchi. And Ugetsu, a ghost story like no other, is surely the Japanese director’s supreme achievement. Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss--with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real--is one of the most beautiful films ever made.

Sanshiro, a strong but stubborn youth, abandons his jujutsu training to master the art of judo from the master Shogoro Yano by combining the competitive elements of the art with the quiet, meditative aspects of the fighting style.