Review of Onibaba (1964) by Patrick D — 25 May 2009
Certainly the most unflinching and taboo film of its era, Onibaba is a monument to Japanese film. Two women living in a highly secluded hut amidst neverending fields, a mother and her daughter-in-law, are delivered the news that the mother's son has been killed in war.
Meanwhile, the daughter-in-law begins to covet the bearer of the news, who had fought with her husband, and may or may not have been responsible for his death. Erstwhile, both the mother and daughter-in-law had been killing straggling soldiers to sell their clothes and weapons for food and supplies, dropping them down a hole, which symbolically is more than it seems.
One day, a soldier wearing a frightening mask is led to this hole by the mother, who uses the mask as an attempt to scare the daughter away from her suitor. The rest of the film should be left for the viewer to discover.
The ending is one of my favorites ever in a film, in that it'll either fill you with a great sense of completion, or turn you off entirely.
This review of Onibaba (1964) was written by Patrick D on 25 May 2009.
Onibaba has generally received very positive reviews.
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