A landmark in fantasy cinema, this lyrical ghost story is set in medieval Japan amid a bloody conflict between rival fiefdoms. While the warrior Kichi's impoverished wife (Jitsuko Yoshimura) and mother (Nobuko Otowa) wait for his return from battle, they maintain a humble existence by luring lost soldiers into the surrounding fields of tall grass and murdering them in order to sell their armor and weapons for food; the bodies are then disposed of in a deep cavern. After learning that her son has been killed in battle, Otowa begins to concoct a scheme to frighten her daughter-in-law into staying at home with her indefinitely. After killing a soldier clad in a hideous demon mask -- which hides his grotesque, scarred face -- the mother dons the mask and succeeds in frightening Yoshimura away from her new lover's house. To her own horror, the mother quickly discovers that the mask is now securely stuck to her face, and her attempts to remove it culminate in the greatest horror of all. Fraught with sexual tension, nefarious schemes, and Freudian symbolism, this compelling masterpiece, by turns hypnotically beautiful and shockingly brutal, represents the finest in horror filmmaking, driven by powerful imagery and aided by sumptuous black-and-white photography. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Review
Brimming with ambient dread and sensuality, director/ writer Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba masterfully evokes a world of grinding desperation, feral lust, and otherworldly menace. In a patch of tall swamp grass at the edge of a war, an old woman and her nubile daughter eke out a miserable existence of killing and scavenging. When her threadbare subsistence is threatened by the presence of a rakish neighbor, the old woman tries to frighten the girl with a frightening mask. The end of the film, when her plan fails tragically, is both horrific and brilliantly absurd. In many ways, this film is similar to Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece Ugetsu (1953), a supernatural drama about women struggling to survive during wartime. Yet, while Mizoguchi's characters remain self-effacing and self-sacrificing, Shindo's are aggressively sexual, brutally violent, and thoroughly amoral. Onibaba is a visual tour-de-force, featuring sumptuous black-and-white cinematography, elegant horizontal camera movement, and a stark, claustrophobic visual style. It is a hypnotic, profoundly spooky work that will haunt you long after the credits roll. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Onibaba (film), a 1964 Japanese horror film named after the creatures
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