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Onibaba (鬼婆, literally Demon Hag) is a 1964 Japanese historical drama/horror film. It was written and directed by Kaneto Shindo. The film is set during a civil war in the fourteenth century. Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura play two women who kill soldiers and steal their possessions.

Plot

In a time of civil war, a woman (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura) live in a small hut in a susuki grass swamp. They live by killing samurai, disposing of their bodies in a deep pit and selling their armor and weapons to a merchant (Taiji Tonoyama). A neighbor named Hachi (Kei Sato), who went to war with the woman's son, returns. He reports that the son was killed. Hachi starts to help the two women to kill. Hachi lusts after the daughter-in-law, who quickly is seduced and starts to sneak out of her hut every night to have sex with him. The mother-in-law learns of the relationship. She first tries to sleep with Hachi and then pleads with him to not take the daughter-in-law away since she cannot kill without her help.

One night, while Hachi and the daughter-in-law are together, a lost samurai in a frightening demon mask forces the woman to guide him out of the swamp. She tricks him into plunging to his death in the pit where the women dispose of their victims. She climbs down and steals the samurai's possessions and, with great difficulty, his mask. Although the samurai boasted that he was beautiful, under the mask he is disfigured.

The mother-in-law begins to play on the younger woman's fears of ghosts and punishment for sins of the flesh. At night, the mother-in-law pretends to be a demon by donning the samurai's mask and frightening the girl to run back to their hut and away from Hachi. One night, during a torrential storm, the older woman terrifies the girl with the mask, but Hachi finds the daughter-in-law and again has sex with her in the grasses as the old woman watches from afar. Hachi returns to his hut. He finds a samurai in his hut wolfing down his rice. The samurai kills Hachi.

At the same time, the older woman discovers to her horror that, after getting wet in the rain, the mask is impossible to remove. She reveals her scheming to the younger woman and pleads with her to help take off the mask, promising to never again meddle in her relationship with Hachi. Though reluctant at first, the younger woman enthusiastically takes on the task of removing the mask when she discovers that it causes pain to her conniving mother-in-law. Eventually the younger woman uses a hammer to break off the mask, revealing the older woman's now ravaged features, similar to that of the samurai who had worn the mask earlier. Now she believes that her mother-in-law has turned into a demon, and runs from her through the grass; the old woman runs after her, crying out that she is a human being, not a demon. The daughter-in-law leaps over the pit, and as the older woman leaps after her the film ends.

Production

Kaneto Shindo wanted to film Onibaba in a field of susuki grass. He sent out assistant directors to find suitable locations. Once a location was found near a river bank at Inba-Numa in Chiba, they put up prefabricated buildings to live in. They had a rule that if somebody left they would not get any pay, so it kept the crew motivated to continue. The crew could only film at daylight, because during the night hours the riverbank would overflow, causing the area to be overrun by crabs, and insects were active during that time as well. To film night scenes inside the huts, they would put up screens to block the sun, and changing the shot would require setting the screens in a completely different spot.

Onibaba's score is by Hikaru Hayashi. It includes a Taiko drum soundtrack, and the natural sounds of pigeons chirping.

The film makes use of rapid editing and slow motion, often at distorted or strange angles.

Distribution

It was released as a Region 1 DVD on March 16, 2004 in the Criterion Collection. A Region 2 DVD was released in 2005 as part of the Masters of Cinema series.

Background

The story takes place shortly after the Battle of Minatogawa which began a period of over 50 years of civil war, the Nanboku-chō period (1336 to 1392) and demonstrates the class warfare between the peasants and the elite samurai at that time.

The story of Onibaba was inspired by the Shin Buddhist parable of yome-odoshi-no men (嫁おどしの面) (bride-scaring mask) or niku-zuki-no-men (肉付きの面) (mask with flesh attached), in which a mother used a mask to scare her daughter from going to the temple. She was punished by the mask sticking to her face, and when she begged to be allowed to remove it, she was able to take it off, but it took the flesh of her face with it.

Analysis

According to Kaneto Shindo the effects of the mask on those who wear it are symbolic of the disfigurement of the victims of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film reflecting the traumatic effect of this visitation on post-war Japanese society.

Reception

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian says "Onibaba is a chilling movie, a waking nightmare shot in icy monochrome, and filmed in a colossal and eerily beautiful wilderness". He comments on the photography "The action of the movie is interspersed with brilliantly composed, almost abstract compositions of the wasteland itself" and summarizes "Onibaba deserves something more than cult status."

Cast

• Nobuko Otowa as Older woman
• Jitsuko Yoshimura as Younger woman
• Kei Sato as Hachi
• Taiji Tonoyama as Ushi

References

1. While Onibaba is regarded a "period drama" by David Robinson or "stage drama" by Keiko I. McDonald (David Robinson: World cinema: a short history, Methuen Young Books 1975, ISBN 978-0416183306, p. 340 f.; Keiko I. McDonald: Reading a Japanese Film: Cinema in Context, University of Hawai'i Press 2006, ISBN 978-0824829933, p. 108 f.), Phil Hardy included it in his genre compendium as a horror film (Phil Hardy: The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror, Aurum Press 1996, p. 165 f).
2. ^ Shindo, Kaneto (Director) (2008-05-15). Onibaba, DVD Extra: Interview with the director (DVD). Criterion Collection.
3. Shindo, Kaneto (2008). Ikite iru kagiri. ISBN 978-4-532-16661-8.
4. Kuroda, Kiyomi (Cinematography) (2008-05-15). Onibaba, DVD Extra: Making of feature (DVD). Criterion Collection.
5. ^ "The Criterion Collection: Onibaba by Kaneto Shindo".
6. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (15 October 2010). "Sex, death and long grass in Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba". Retrieved 25 February 2012.

Sources

• Thompson, Nathaniel (2006). DVD Delirium: The International Guide to Weird and Wonderful Films on DVD; Volume 3. Godalming, England: FAB Press. pp. 407–408. ISBN 1-903254-40-X.

External links

• Template:Amg movie
• Onibaba at IMDb
• Onibaba at the Japanese Movie Database
• Onibaba at Rotten Tomatoes
• Onibaba at the TCM Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by
• Kei Sato's home movies of the production of Onibaba at YouTube

Chuck Stephens

• 1964 films
• 1964 horror films
• Films directed by Kaneto Shindo
• Japanese films
• Japanese drama films
• Japanese horror films
• Japanese-language films
• Supernatural horror films