Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece Sansho Dayu (1954) retells a classic Japanese folktale about an eleventh-century feudal official forced into exile by his political enemies. In his absence, his children Anju and Zushio flee with their mother, kidnapped, they are separated from her and enslaved by the malevolent bailiff Sansho. Though the film ends with a reunion, it is only at the most terrible human cost. A heartbreaking tragedy in form, rooted in elemental aspects of Japanese society, Sansho Dayu is also a modern artwork made in the aftermath of the Second World War, which reflects on old and new values. It was responsible as much as any other film for bringing Japanese cinema to the rapt attention of Western audiences. In this compelling study, Dudley Andrew and Carole Cavanaugh highlight the film's cultural, aesthetic and social contexts and, in dialogue, the authors elucidate a distinctly Japanese work that nevertheless speaks of universal themes. This edition includes a new foreword in which the authors consider the film's contemporary parallels in modern slavery and children torn from their families by malevolent authorities. Book jacket.