Ugetsu

Ugetsu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kenji Mizoguchi
Screenplay by	Matsutarō Kawaguchi Yoshikata Yoda
Based on	Ugetsu Monogatari by Ueda Akinari
Produced by	Masaichi Nagata
Starring	Machiko Kyō Mitsuko Mito Kinuyo Tanaka Masayuki Mori Sakae Ozawa
Cinematography	Kazuo Miyagawa
Edited by	Mitsuzō Miyata
Music by	Fumio Hayasaka
Production company	Daiei Film[1]
Distributed by	Daiei Film
Release date	26 March 1953 (1953-03-26) (Japan)
Running time	96 minutes[2]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Ugetsu (雨月物語, Ugetsu Monogatari, lit. "Rain-moon tales")^[3] is a 1953 Japanese period fantasy film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō. It is based on the stories "The House in the Thicket" and "The Lust of the White Serpent" from Ueda Akinari's 1776 book Ugetsu Monogatari, combining elements of the jidaigeki (period drama) genre with a ghost story.

Drawing from Ueda's tales, the film is set in Japan's civil war–torn Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1600). In a small rural community, a potter leaves his wife and young son behind to make money selling pottery and ends up being seduced by a spirit that makes him forget all about his family. A subplot, inspired by Guy de Maupassant's 1883 short story "How He Got the Legion of Honor" ("Décoré !"),^[4][5] involves his brother-in-law, who dreams of becoming a samurai and chases this goal at the unintended expense of his wife.

The film won the Silver Lion Award at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and other honours. Ugetsu is one of Mizoguchi's most celebrated films, regarded by critics as a masterpiece of Japanese cinema, credited with simultaneously helping to popularize Japanese cinema in the West and influencing later Japanese film.^{[citation needed]}