Sansho the Bailiff

This movie intrigued me. I’m more of a fan of the horror and thriller genres and I thought this was a great movie about something terrible that happened to family and the long journey that they took for redemption. It was so sad when the children were torn apart from their mother and you never know if she’s still alive or dead. The character of Zushio goes through major personality changes in the course of the film. He starts as a happy young child who wants to be just like his father, but after the kidnapping he becomes cold and seemingly heartless. The audience thinks he has become almost evil when he scalds the old man and when he carries the sick women to the mountains to die, but when he rescues her we realize that he is not so heartless after all. It was very heartwarming for me when he came back and asked the old man for forgiveness. The moment when he broke down, begging the men to listen to him, trying to tell him that he was indeed the bailiff’s son was a great moment of humbleness. For me that was like a turning point in his soul. I think most of us were stumped as to why the sister killed herself instead of running away with Zushio, and I still question that too. However, the greatest part for me was when Zushio found his mother. It was intense and I was worried that in her old age she would never believe it was really him, but I was happy when she finally realized they were reunited. There was definitely a level of cheesiness and parts that were illogical in the movie, but overall I enjoyed it.