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Title: Onibaba - Criterion Collection (2004) |
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Review of Onibaba - Criterion Collection
- Deep within the wind-swept marshes of war-torn medieval Japan an impoverished mother and her daughter-in-law eke out a lonely desperate existence. Forced to murder lost samurai and sell their belongings for grain they dump the corpses down a deep dark hole and live off the meager spoils. When a bedraggled neighbor returns from the skirmishes lust jealousy and rage threaten to destroy the trio's tenuous existence before an ominous ill-gotten demon mask seals their horrifying fate. Driven by primal emotions dark eroticism a frenzied score and stunning images both lyrical and macabre Kaneto Shindo's chilling folk tale is a singular cinematic experience. The DVD also includes a new video interview with the director; the original trailer; a stills gallery with behind-the-scenes photos production sketches and promotional art; and rare super-8 behind-the-scenes footage provided by actor Kei Sato.System Requirements: Length: 103 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN UPC: 037429185827 Manufacturer No: ONI0303DVD
Product Description
- A curse hangs over Kaneto Shindo's primal Japanese classic like a looming storm cloud, but the supernatural has got nothing on the desperation and savagery of the human animal trying to survive the horrors of war. In 16th-century Japan, a hardened middle-aged woman and her young daughter-in-law have turned predator to survive, murdering the soldiers who wander into the sea of pampas grass surrounding their hut and selling their weapons for rice. When their war-deserter neighbor returns home and makes his moves on the young woman, their numb equilibrium is complicated by greed, jealousy, and lust. The consequences are terrible and not exactly surprising, but they are gripping. Shindo's unnerving close-ups, bobbing handheld camerawork, and soundtrack of pounding drums and howling flutes gives Onibaba a queasy intensity. Shooting in stark black and white, he makes even the waving of the grass look ominous as it all but swallows everyone who enters. --Sean Axmaker
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Comments for Onibaba - Criterion Collection
- Posted on 2008-03-27
4 ½ Stars: A Haunting Tale of Sex, Terror and Survival....
ONIBABA (1964) precedes the Japanese classic "Kwaidan". This film is shot in its entirety in black and white, the film is Kaneto Shindo's masterpiece. Based on Buddhist folklore about morality, love and the manifestation of more refined emotions. The film is excellently executed, words, gestures and actions are conveyed with such emotional content that the film may just prove compelling even if it was made as a silent film.
A 45 year old woman (Nobuko Otawa) and a daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura) struggle to survive when a war breaks out between feuding clans. Hungry, penniless and desperate, they resort to wanton acts of murder, they prey on lost or wounded samurai, killing them and taking their armor, valuable swords and sells them to a war profiteer (Taiji Tonoyama). The opening act is a grisly depiction of the two women slaughtering two unsuspecting samurai, not exactly a subtle way to begin a tale based on fable.
Their lives become intertwined with Hachi (Kei Sato), a neighbor who returns from the field of battle with the news that their husband/son had been killed in combat. Left without a spouse, the daughter-in-law becomes attracted to Hachi, and he with her. What happens next is a frightful, sensual wind of lust, sex, envy, greed and murder...the kind that may catapult the trio into a downward spiral into hell.
"Onibaba" means "demon woman", the film is a simple, uncompromising dramatization on how low humanity can sink into to survive. The tale is about escalating intense emotions and passionate interactions(?). The film is excellently structured, the film plays like a morality drama but never once loses its frightening aspect. The film is a tale of lust, jealousy and anger. The main focus of the film is the older woman (Nobuko Otawa) who sees Hachi as a deserter, lazy and may be the cause of her son's death; this man may also ruin the arrangement she has with her daughter-in-law. Her love soon becomes hatred as she realizes that Hachi may become the cause of her becoming alone and left to fend for herself. The irony is; the older woman also longs for the touch of a man and the very sight of them embracing ignites a fire of envy, desire and rage that may consume the entire household. There are subtle symbols and metaphors to be had with the film; the blades of grass blowing with a movement to mimic the ocean represents passion and the demonic mask may well be a metaphor to something else. It all depends on how you interpret it.
Narratives aside, the film is a successful blend of its subject and camera work. There are moments that the camera stays still, that it feels almost voyeuristic that time had stopped is a haunting touch. The excellent cinematography gives life to the film's proceedings as well as to its characters. There is a haunting and ghostly, speechless gestures that add to the film's atmosphere. Shindo's direction is almost flawless in expressing the terror that is beginning to take hold of the trio's lives. Shadows are used effectively to convey the schemes and murderous plots that add to the film's moody and atmospheric feeling. If atmosphere is the main strength of a horror film, then this film would reign as king. The black and white approach actually added to the film's strength (I'm not sure if this was intentional), the bleakness and darkness in the lives of the protagonists are further expressed by the colorless proceedings.
The film is also uninhibited with its portrayal of sexual relations. For a film made in 1964, there are quite a number of long, unglamorous nude scenes (for that time) by Otawa and Yohimura. Otawa (she became Shindo's wife) is a powerful presence with her gestures and facial mannerisms that exudes lust and rage. Yoshimura is a woman awakened by sexuality and lust, but before that she had that "shocked" characteristic that she exuded instinct. Kei sato seemed very bestial in his portrayal of Hachi and Tonoyama makes a convincing presence as the sleazy profiteer.
"Onibaba" is a unique experience. While it may lack the raw intensity of modern Japanese horror films, and may not be as visually horrific as modern horror films; it is still refreshing to know that a relic from the past can still endure as one of the best Japanese horror films with its defining moments of the aspects of lust and hatred.
Highly Recommended! [4 ½ stars]
Criterion sports an impressive enhanced widescreen transfer with a clear mono track. Subtitles are excellent. The extras contain interviews, making of features, galleries and a booklet about the the parable that inspired the film.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-03-27
What's the price tag to save your soul?
The screams of the demons that lie dormant in our actions
can't be silenced by the comforts of sleep...
Your nightmare will surface
ONIBABA--Devil Woman
Like a good ghost story? They don't get no better than this! This explores the bottomless depths of human morality.
A mother and her daughter-in-law are forced to scrounge for survival. In desperation they murder lost samurai and dump their bodies down a deep mysterious hole in the field. This hole seems to be metaphorical for hell, or purgatory. Very much a holding place for their sins.
When their neighbor returns home from battle, he presents a whole new problem. They soon get swallowed in a vortex of deception, betrayal, lust, and greed.
This is a mesmerizing and chilling tale. Extremely well-written and acted. It has some great philisophical and spiritual statements to ponder. Some dark eroticism to tempt any urges of the flesh. Lots of stark images that will penetrate and absorb into the murky unexplored confines of your imagination.
Seriously, they flat out can't make 'em like this anymore. Highly recommended.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-10-24
ONCE AGAIN CRITERION DOES NOT DISSAPOINT!
A Japanese period HORROR about two women,a mother and a daughter-in-law
who kill deserting soldiers and sell their armor for $$$ and throwing
the bodies into a nearby pit. When the younger woman falls in love
with one of their potential victim's the older uses a HIDEOUS mask
to scare the soldier away. The plan backfires HORRIBLY,however
when the mask gets stuck to the mother's face forcing her daughter
in law to smash it revealing...............
Beautifully done,with SHARP photography and EERIE scenes of the women
luring soldiers to their doom through the tall,wavering weeds.
This is a great HORROR story! And am proud that Criterion has
released this in a BEAUTIFUL transfer. I use to own the Connoisseur
VHS copy and that was grainy. For those who love Criterion(cough!
you know who you are!)or those who love a good GHOST story check this
Lil Gem out!
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-09-11
Love and Death--The Things That Make LIfe Worth Living
This film is certainly one of the greatest films ever shot. By reducing life to its simplest terms, and presenting the director's vision in the brilliant style of the 1960's revolution in the arts, the visceral impact of the film stuns the viewer. The director's comments are extremely illuminating, although the film delivers more than he recalls from forty years after its creation. The film has within it an implied anti-war message appropriate to the time of its conception, however the theme of the film transcends this didactic message and makes the leap into the realm of truly great art--a work of true genius. (Note: there is likely an attempt to describe this as a "Japanese Horror Film". It has absolutely nothing of the supernatural in it. It is grimly realistic.)
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-07-11
When the Devil Comes
An oni is a demon. The demon in this story takes on the form of a malevolent Noh mask, and the twilight-zonish tale of terror is one of the most bone-chilling things I've ever seen on film. Briefly, the marshlands of war-ravaged Japan during the era of feuding warlords has become briefly inhabited by displaced people, principally a middle-aged woman and her widowed dauighter, reduced to living on an animal level. They have become low-life, predatory scavangers who murder lost samurai in order to steal their property and sell it for food on the black market. Trouble starts when a man known to both women begins secretly meeting the daughter for passionate encounters, and the mother tells her that the devil will get her for her sins, and seeks to terrorize her into chastity by masquerading as a swamp demon. It goes without saying that it all leads to a disaster of the most grotesque kind. Very chilling and horrific in it's eerie black-and-whiteness, with a nightmarish use of light and shadow that only the B&W Japanese media can achieve. I recommend it to sit right next to your Twilight Zone collection, along with other classics of this kind.
Score: 5