"I was watching a geezer on Charlie Rose last night. John something, lectures in universities on war, uprisings, terrorism, torture, how governments become the terrorists, the pendulum of life and death. John something still uses this film to explain all before they discuss waterboarding. This film is the guv’ner."
"Without mercy, a man is not a human being." Mizoguchi's most devastating film (arguably) is unrivaled among the great epic tragedies. Has anyone ever composed more exquisite frames for the Academy ratio (described by Mizoguchi as "the painterly ratio")? And my God, that ending! "Isn't life a torture?"