Condenses a vast array of injustices – as well as an extraordinary romantic power – into its teeming action. Mizoguchi builds the drama on such underlying pathologies as the sexual harassment of a female worker, the martial cruelty of the samurai class, and a repressive moralism that treats women like property. The tale morphs into a hectic, passionate flight for freedom as the protagonists try to save their own lives and, in the process, discover their love for each other; Mizoguchi films their devotion unto death with a fiercely defiant exaltation.

The New Yorker

Here is the rare Japanese period film of its era that also explicitly recognizes the double standards of sexual morality between the sexes.

The Retro Set