Synopsis
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 of their 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 the trio’s horrifying fate. Driven by primal emotions, dark eroticism, a frenzied score by Hikaru Hayashi, and stunning images both lyrical and macabre, Kaneto Shindo’s chilling folktale Onibaba is a singular cinematic experience.
Cast
| Woman | Nobuko Otowa |
| Young woman | Jitsuko Yoshimura |
| Hachi | Kei Sato |
| The samurai | Jukichi Uno |
| Ushi | Taiji Tonoyama |
Credits
| Director | Kaneto Shindo |
| Film editor | Toshio Enoki |
| Sound | Tetsuya Ohashi |
| Music | Hikaru Hayashi |
| Director of photography | Kiyomi Kuroda |
| Original screenplay | Kaneto Shindo |
| Art direction | Kaneto Shindo |
Disc Features
- New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisions
- New video interview with writer/director Kaneto Shindo
- Rare super-8 black & white and color footage provided by actor Kei Sato, shot on location during the filming of Onibaba
- Original trailer
- Stills gallery featuring production sketches and promotional art
- Rare English translation of the original short Buddhist fable that inspired the film
- Filmmaker’s statement from writer/director Kaneto Shindo
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
From the Current
Onibaba: Black Sun Rising
by Mar 15, 2004“People are both the devil and God,” Japanese writer/director Kaneto Shindo—whose 1964 erotic-horror classic Onibaba you now hold in your hands—told an interviewer just a year or so ago, “and are truly mysterious.” He is surely in a position to know. With a resume consisting...
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