In sixteenth-century Japan, with the pandemonium of civil wars a looming presence in their lives, the potter Genjuro and his wife long to be rich and safe, respectively. The all-too-real and the supernatural move steadily toward each other; a boat ride on foggy waters foreshadows the horizontal unity Kenji Mizoguchi gave his two worlds. For just as his images overflow with life, this reality flows into the phantom universe. Mizoguchi built an eerie netherworld entirely out of shadows and lighting, decor and texture, and the graceful chicanery of human desire.