Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

My only prior taste of director Kenji Mizoguchi was Ugetsu, which I basically liked but would be very selective in recommending, because it's pretty sad. Well, in my experience, directors never stop at just one sad movie. I'd had my warning.

The title character is the villain and doesn't get nearly the most screen time. The main focus is on two siblings, Zushiō (male) and Anju (female). Their troubles begin when their father, a governor, is dismissed and exiled for showing too much compassion. When they are 13 and 8, respectively, slavers capture them and their mother, sending the latter elsewhere. Most of the film is set 10 years later, by which time Zushiō has lost all hope and a good deal of virtue. But after Anju hears evidence from a new slave that their mother is alive on Sado Island, she gives serious consideration to a risky escape attempt....

The Robe (1953)

Having declined in religiosity, I don't watch film adaptations of Christian legends/books as much as I used to. But a good swords-and-sandals epic doesn't require devout Christianity for entertainment. Heck, Quo Vadis? (1951) had a Jewish director. Perhaps the panned re-remake of Ben-Hur helped inspire me to try another one (along with the streaming deadline).

The protagonist is Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton), the tribune who oversees the crucifixion of Jesus, despite pleas from slave Demetrius (Victor Mature). As soon as Marcellus puts on Jesus' robe in the rain, he is beset with mental and physical symptoms. The illness remains in some measure long after Demetrius runs off with the robe. Marcellus hopes to find and destroy the robe for a cure, but his journey exposes him to more and more Christian love and piety, including that of Peter (Michael "Klaatu" Rennie). It's no spoiler to say that he converts -- leaving plenty of time for conflict with other Romans, including mutual crush Diana (Jean Simmons) and Emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson).

The Book of Life (2014)

No, the title has nothing to do with the biblical use of the term. In fact, it relies heavily on Mayan mythology. Since I'd forgotten that Mexico's Day of the Dead actually lasts three days, I am in no position to evaluate the authenticity of the traditions depicted herein, but that matters little in an animated comedy.

We get a story within a story as a museum tour guide (Christina Applegate) tells a group of kids -- far more rapt than their early misbehavior would portend -- one legend straight out of the allegedly comprehensive Book of Life. Set in an ambiguous post-Columbian era, it concerns two gods wagering on human love. If María (Zoe Saldana) marries Joaquin (Channing Tatum), popular son of a war hero, then Xibalba (Ron Perlman), god of the hellish Land of the Forgotten, gets to swap places with La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), goddess of the much more pleasant Land of the Remembered. If María marries Joaquin's friend Manolo (Diego Luna), an aspiring mariachi whose father pushes him to be a matador, then Xibalba has to stop intervening in the realm of the living. Both boys/men do awesome things with their divine blessings over the years, but neither has the advantage in María's heart for very long; the main change is in how they feel about each other. At no point does either god fear that she'll marry neither, though.

As you might have guessed, Xibalba is the nastier god, though not nasty enough to make an outright villain out of his champion. Due to some unfair moves on Xibalba's part, Manolo dies about halfway through the movie. But Manolo strives to return to life, not just for María's sake but to help save their hometown from the true main villain, Chakal (Dan Navarro), a bandit leader too dangerous even for Joaquin. This being the Day of the Dead, the separation between life and death is more negotiable than usual....

Hercules (1997)

In the past year or so, I've increased my viewing of animated features from the late '90s and early 2000s, when Disney had taken a dive in popularity, not counting collaborations with Pixar. Why? Well, sometimes I want to see something not only short but colorful, whimsical, and unchallenging, and I've already seen the bulk of the most esteemed fare in that category. Oddly enough, I tend to like the "middling" stuff almost equally; it must be a matter of expectations and backlash.

As you may recall, Hercules came out after the double whammy of underachievers Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. One of their alleged problems was working with darker stories than the target audience was used to watching. So someone had the bright idea of turning to Greco-Roman tragedy for something more uplifting! OK, if you remember anything from the trailer and your own studies of ancient history and mythology, you know that Disney took possibly even more liberties with the source material than ever before or since, as if nobody bothered to review what they learned in junior high. (Kudos to the ad makers for conveying the feeling accurately while not giving away the best moments.)