Ian Cameron, editor of the British film magazine,
Movie, wrote in 1962: “The parallel between the historical action and the personal story gives
Shin Heike Monogatari its particular beauty. Mizoguchi is arguably the greatest of directors. This is arguably his best film, and the best of all films.” Kevin B Lee in a 2009 review for
Slant Magazine found it a rather tentative attempt at color filmmaking and a self-conscious "prestige" picture, with Mizoguchi's usual themes present but at odds with the desire for spectacle and action of a
samurai movie. After the American release of the film in 1964, Eugene Archer of
The New York Times wrote that the plot was "subordinate to the decor". Various critics have suggested that the film's setting at the end of the
Heian period, a politically unstable time, and its concern with the transition of power reflect the situation of
Post-occupation Japan, when the film was made in the 1950s. == Cast ==