Review of Onibaba (1964) by Kenneth L — 17 Jun 2011

This old Japanese horror film certainly has its moments - especially the creepy and tremendously unsettling climax - but overall it's a bit slow for me. I certainly liked it and won't forget it, but it wouldn't be to many contemporary viewers' taste.

The story, about an old woman and her daughter-in-law scraping out a living by murdering samurai and selling their stuff until they have a supernatural encounter, invites comparison with another classic Japanese ghost story, Ugetsu. Whereas Ugetsu worked like an eerie old fable, this one has a bit more in common with the modern horror film. I did like the story, but it's a little too deliberate early on - the movie could probably be about ten minutes shorter without suffering too much.

The acting in most Japanese films from the 1950s and 1960s seems about the same to me - theatrical, prone to alternating between whispering and shouting, and highly demonstrative. That holds true here, and the acting seems fine to me. The direction is quite good - you've never seen tall reeds so evocatively and creepily shot and used in a film. The movie also has the single creepiest sequence of a nude man and woman frolicking in a field ever. The film alternates between profoundly weird and creepy moments, and humdrum scenes of life that are a little too mundane for their own good. I did like this film, and it holds up reasonably well, but it's not the best Japanese movie I've seen from the period.