 | MOVIE #1,192 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 10.14.23 50 MOVIES IN 32 DAYS! I was instantly drawn into this with its truly wonderful and brief pre-credits segment, as opposed to last week's entry in this, my October decade-by-decade dip into the history of Japanese “horror.” I use that in quotations because the previous film (1953’s Ugetsu) was decidedly not a horror picture. This one, while its classification is certainly up for debate, is much closer to that ilk and I have no problem sliding it into that box. Both films take place under the shadow of a civil war, but the former is much more closely tied to historical elements and setting. Onibaba tells a much more isolating story and it unfolds over a single location: a couple of huts hidden in some really tall grass. Its monochrome cinematography is stunning… |
It tells the story of a woman and her daughter-in-law who murder wayward samurai and steal their armor and swords to survive. There is a deep erotic/psychological underpinning as well, which still feels fresh here in 2023. I was unaware of writer-director Kaneto Shindō before this but now I definitely want to do a deep dive at some point. There’s a lot going on here thematically on many different levels and will certainly leave you with a lot to think about (even if, like me, you aren’t well-versed in Japanese culture and history). It’s a quiet, menacing and terrific film.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,191 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,193 ⫸
⫷ MOVIE #1,191 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,193 ⫸
Onibaba (鬼婆, lit. "Demon hag"), also titled The Hole, is a 1964 Japanese historical drama and horror film written and directed by Kaneto Shindō. The film is set during a civil war in medieval Japan. Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura play two women who kill infighting soldiers to steal their armor and possessions for survival, while Kei Satō plays the man who ultimately comes between them. It was released on November 21, 1964.
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