1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric Japanese ghost story, September 23, 2010
Japanese cinema in the 1960's was marked by a wave of ghost stories."Onibaba" by the director Kaneto Shinda was a big hit in 1964 ,not just in Japan but in overseas markets.Perhaps suprisingly in light of this success it took the director some time to return to the genre and it was not until 1968 that he came out with "Kuroneko",another slab of moody monochrome ghostliness.
The movie begins with a shot of a hut near a bamboo forest; several samurai emerge and enter the hut where they rape and murder the two female residents, the mother (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter (Kiwako Taichi),before burning the place down and leaving.A black cat emerges and licks the b;ood from their faces ,this serving to restore the dead to life as vampiric ghosts.They vow to exact revenge for their deaths by killing any samurai coming within their path.
Ginotki (Kichremon Nakamura) is a peasant boy ,elevated to the ranks of the samurai by virtue of his wartime heroics and he is despatched by his arrogant master to destroy the ghosts ,only to discover they are his own wife and mother.The theme of love in conflict with duty then takes over as the "motif"of the second part of the picture as Ginotki must confront his loved ones demonic apparitions .
Ginotki is introduced in a conventionally heroic way ,riding on horseback across dangerous terrain to the sound of stirring martial music ,but it is clear he is not wholly comfortable in his new ,elevated social position.He is of peasant stock and is patronised by his preening elitist master Raiko (Kei Sato) .Thus ,social class forms an important subtect to the ghostly goings on.
The love scenes between Ginotki and his wife are erotic without being explicit and indeed convey a tinge of melancholy as love becomes a source of conflict rather than a resolution of it
This is a meditative and elegaic movie that will reward those whose taste is for the subtler forms of screen horror but is perhaps best avoided by devotees of slasher movies and torture porn like "Saw"
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WHY ISNT THIS FILM DISTRIBUTED IN US?, July 16, 2010
This is a wonderful Japanese film classic, by the same director of ONIBABA & in my opinion is better than that more famous film. This is wonderfully eerie, atmospheric & magicly surreal with stunning cinematography & editing. It's spooky, erotic & tragic at the same time. I agree with Frank Gorshin's comments but would like to know: HOW do you hack a DVD player for PAL, non-USA format? This film is an overlooked classic (like Saragossa Manuscript) & SHOULD be available in the US for screening & video viewing. "Horror" at it's most beautiful & artistic!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Shining (with samurais and cats), June 3, 2010
It's easy enough to hack dvd players to play this, so all fans of atmospheric horror should buy it and treat themselves. Soldiers rape and murder a mother and daughter who come back as bloodsucking cat ghosts. But it's also a love story, because the daughter's husband was forced to fight, and he returns after years of absence.... No cheesy effects: it's all in the artful use of shadow and light. Plus, the use of sound (pulsing drums, sparse screeching noises) is just amazing. Kubrick definitely studied this film.
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