Roughly translated - 'Demon Hag'...a classic black and white Japanese horror film. It's another first watch for me after having "been on the list" for some time. The story centers around two female beggars - an older woman and her daughter in law - who make their living off of killing wayward samurai and pawning off their equipment for money and food. A civil war is raging in 14th century Japan and all of the men are away at war, leaving the women to scrounge a living off the land any way they possibly can. The women live in a gigantic brush field, allowing them seemingly endless ways to hide and pounce on their wounded prey.
A friend of the old woman's son shows up one afternoon, claiming her son is dead and shows interest in taking her daughter in law as his wife. This makes for an uneasy circumstance as the young girl begins to succumb to his advances. The old woman comes upon a lone samurai in the night while chasing her daughter and notices something odd about him...he wears a mask, claiming it is to hide his handsome face from the ravages of war. She tricks him and steals the mask and aims to use it to scare the young lovers, but the mask is more than just a prop and some bad, bad things ensue...
I loved this. As with the best of Japanese cinema of the time period, it is subtle in its approach. The imagery is creepy and utilizes such things are shadow and exaggerated camera angles and close-ups to pull the viewer in. It is extremely effective in creating a world in which these actors/characters struggle with their lives in poverty and ghost and demons inhabit the darkness. I think there are a total of 5-6 actors in this! Such emotions are greed, lust, and jealousy are all explored here in this backwoods demon tale.
Here is the wonderful Criterion Cover:
1 comment:
i can't speak for the movie, but the criterion collection covers are always so good
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