Onibaba

(Kaneto Shindo/1964/Japan)

Opening with a close up of reeds shuffling in a howling wind Onibaba presents two women ambushing passing soldiers in the field of high reeds and murdering them to sell on their armour and weapons so they can buy food. There is a civil war and the younger woman’s husband, the elder’s son, is long gone. Their neighbour returns recounting the death of the husband who he had gone to war with. Slowly, he inveigles his way into their company, especially the young woman who he develops a relationship with, to the consternation of the elder. Within this ménage-a-trois the darker caverns of the human heart are explored; jealousy, greed, selfishness and lust are all on show. It is an unsubtle look at the baser instincts of humanity but within this rummaging there are some excellent cinematic treats. Visually it’s consistently striking and arresting, in particular the closing sequences involving the mask. The soundtrack is also brilliant and parallels, drives and enhances the offbeat and sinister goings on onscreen. Shindo takes a straightforward tale of human fallibility and raises it into the arena of myth and folktale with genuinely great artistic flourishes.

(3.5/5)