"Ugetsu Monogotari" is an imaginative film from Japan that masterfully combines fantasy with gritty realism. If it were made today, it might be classified as magical realism. 

It is one of the most historically important and brilliant Asian films.  Along with Kurosawa's early works, it helped popularize Asian films in the West, and it deserves its status as a classic. 

The film was originally released in 1953, and it is being shown at the Music Box Theatre as part of the "Kenji Mizoguchi: Fifty Years Later" series. 

The film was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, one of Japan’s finest directors. He was Eric Rohmer's favorite filmmaker, and Jean-Luc Godard called him, "The greatest of Japanese filmmakers.  Or quite simply, one of the greatest of filmmakers." 

The film is set in 16th century Japan and it tells a suspenseful and humanistic supernatural story, which raises tough moral questions.  

It focuses on two farmers trying to survive in a dangerous war period, but the main stories branch out into side plots.  The more realistic Genjuro attempts to make money by making pots, while his dreamer brother Tobei wants to become a samurai.  Both men face tests to their moral codes and both are found wanting. 

After their village is pillaged, both men leave their mates behind and face temptation.  Genjuro is normally a good husband, but a needy noblewoman named Lady Wakasa (Machiko Kyo looking as luminous as Garbo) seduces him.  She is as pale as a corpse and the way she is lit makes her look unreal. 

Meanwhile Tobei runs off and uses all his money to buy a suit of amour.  He abandons his wife and becomes a wandering samurai. But when he returns to his wife, he is devastated when he learns of the changes that she has gone through. 

" Ugetsu Monogotari " is a terrific looking, brilliantly lit film that gets better with each additional viewing. It may also encourage viewers to reconsider the moral implications of their actions, and reawaken their sense of wonder or curiosity about other cultures. Few films are as essential or as eerily beautiful.