Recommended Viewing: "Ugetsu," a film by Kenji Mizoguchi

A haunting ghost story, a parable of human foibles and shortcomings, an exploration of love and fidelity during civil war in Japan, "Ugetsu" draws upon elements of Noh theater, eastern philosophy (e.g., the inevitability of death and suffering), and Guy de Maupassant's short stories. This essential Japanese film is replete with beautiful cinematography and lyrically jarring music that adds to the depth of the uncanny. A scene which I always find poignantly evocative is Lady Wakasa's confession: having neither found nor experienced love, she has returned from among the dead to the land of the living to find true, unconditional love. Available on DVD in the Criterion Collection. Recommended viewing.