So I have very little to say about Taira Clan Saga. It is dreadfully paced and very unengaging, though it looks nice and the acting is good. It has inspired a rant, however, which I'll lay out in lieu of a revieu.
This film was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. He's made some very good films, including Sansho the Bailiff (my personal favourite).
Now, I've been writing for Collider for a while now. I did an article recently on great Japanese directors who aren't Akira Kurosawa or Hayao Miyazaki. I got to shout out any 10 great filmmakers, many of whom aren't household names outside the West.
And some guy gave me grief for not including Mizoguchi. He was on my shortlist of 15-20 directors. I'm only allowed to write about 10 entries per most lists. People have to be cut, and Mizoguchi was cut.
"But was I wrong to cut him?" I thought. It inspired me to watch a deep cut like Taira Clan Saga. It wasn't very good. I feel even more confident in my list.
To anyone offended: it wasn't hard, from personal experience, to find a freelance movie writing job. Apply for one and talk about Mizoguchi to your heart's content. Or... blogs still technically exist. No one reads them because it's not 2005 anymore, but you can still put your Mizoguchi admiration out onto the internet for "all" to see.
If you don't want to do any of those things, shut up and be thankful that there even is an article about brilliant yet underappreicated Japanese directors at all. Of course there's more than 10 great ones. But I picked my 10 because I couldn't pick more than 10. Deal with it and be happy that anyone on a Western-centric site like Collider is talking about Yoji Yamada, for example!
*Gob from Arrested Development voice* "COME ON!"
