Well thank you, I do appreciate that (and Capo's even mentioned it too). Recently, I've had this passion for Japanese classic films. Basically, any Japanese movie that the Criterion Collection puts out on DVD, I'll watch it. Ozu isn't my favorite Japanese director but I do enjoy his work. His films are drama pieces and I find them a little slow with not a lot of suspense/tension to keep me entertained, however ever film of his that I've seen, I've enjoyed. I've viewed his "Noriko Trilogy" (LATE SPRING, EARLY SUMMER, and TOKYO STORY). In addition I've seen LATE AUTUMN.
As for Mizoguchi, SANSHO was enjoyable but I'm not going to purchase it. The standard for me is if I liked a movie enough, I'll buy it. While I did enjoy SANSHO, I just don't envision myself viewing it multiple times. Other than Kurosawa, the 3 Japanese movies that have influenced me the most recently are JIGOKU, HARAKIRI, and ONIBABA. Has anyone else ever seen JIGOKU? That's also in my Top 10 Japanese list.
Yeah, Ozu's stuff that's available on Region 1-DVD has a calmness. It's like Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue. He has darker stuff like Tokyo Twilight and Early Spring. But, he has other funny stuff like Good Morning complete with farts. Blockbuster might have his silent comedy on VHS, I Was Born, But... - the original for Good Morning. (So much for the wholesale graveness stereotype of Ozu.)
As for Mizoguchi, you might like Ugetsu better than Sansho given your affinity for Onibaba and interest in Kwaidan.
Have you seen Sword Of Doom yet? That's a thrilling watch. I trust that you've seen all the other samurai Criterions: Kill!, Samurai Rebellion, Sword Of The Beast, Samurai Spy, Samurai I, Samurai II, Samurai III. Some are great all the way through; some are patchy with great moments.
Samurai Assassin is great, too. Not Criterion.
Of course, given your Kill Bill love, you've seen Shogun Assassin?.
For transgressive Yakuza-gangster stuff, you always can check out more Seijun Suzuki (especially Fighting Elegy and Youth Of The Beast) and Kinji Fukusaku (especially Fukusaku's mammoth The Yakuza Papers).
