Kuroneko - Kaneto Shindo

[HAZ]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else saw Kuroneko? It's by the director of Onibaba. A lesser film compared to Onibaba, it was still pretty good. I guess Black Cats are considered bad luck in Japan, too? Kuroneko is about two women who are raped and killed by a band of marauding samurai. They make a pact with a demon to be reincarnated as vengeful to take their revenge against all samurai. Onibaba has a mother & daughter at the heart of the film, and Kuroneko is the same - the two spirits seeking vengeance are a mother & daughter-in-law. Both films also have war as a backdrop, with men going off to war, and women waiting for their return. Kuroneko is more of an overt social commentary than Onibaba is; it's clear that the director's sympathies lay with the peasants, and not with the samurai, who he portrays as being exploitative of the poor and disadvantaged. As samurai lord gives a speech about his views of the peasant farmers as being weak "Who'd respect or think a farmer to be a human being?", he yells at the film's hero, Gintoki, who was once a poor farmer himself. Director Shindo is a Marxist, and his political viewpoints are very clear, but, thankfully, the film's story & dramatic elements are not weight down by political diatribes. The film is shot in a beautiful, stark black & white, and the two women, reincarnated as cat-demons, put in a strong performance. When their oath to kill all samurai is tested by a brutal twist of fate, their suffering is palpable. The beautiful Kiwako Taichi plays "Shige", the daughter-in-law, who maybe known to fans for her role in Zatoichi In Desperation. Another recognizable face is Kei Satô, star of innumerable films, and still an active actor. I would say this is definitely worth seeking out if you're a fan of the Japanese ghost story genre, and finding it may become significantly easier in the coming months - Criterion is slated to pick Kuroneko up for a DVD release.

[BlackLamaFaction]

Sounds great!! Sounds really similar to Onibaba in the characters and storyline. I love the juxtaposition of beauty and horror, the coupling of eerie, unsettling stories with stunning cinematography, creates such an effective contrast. Kobayashi's film of ghost stories; Kaiden comes to mind as another example of that.

[fiol]

it was the first BW horror movie from japan i saw... i loved it.. i was truly amazed by that moive. I ve the UK DVD rls, excellent one if i may say.

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

Looks interesting.

[Stuntman Jules]

It's a great film, very similar to director Shindo's masterwork Onibaba. Not quite as pure or strong a work of art, but a fine companion piece nonetheless with very similar themes and a bigger budget, more special effects and stronger horror elements, but in Onibaba it's low budget and minimalism works for it ala Carnival of Souls.

Shindo was a Marxist? Not surprised, I love that Japanese cinema in the 60s and 70s often had a very strong left-wing bent and a lot of the filmmakers back then were members of Japanese Communist Party. You couldn't make something like Masaki Kobayashi's Ningen no Joken (Human Condition) or Kinji Fukasaku's Under the Flag of the Rising Sun now in Japan if you dared.

Shindo's Onibaba and Kuroneko stack up nicely to and are culturally equivalent to Ingmar Bergman's "Medieval Sweden" films like The Seventh Seal and The Virgin Spring. The stark high contrast black and white photography, dog eat dog Dark Age world they depict and deeply philosophical explorations of human nature and morality all deeply remind me of each other.

[Daigoro]

This is one of my favorite films, i highly recommend it. There are two releases the Japanese (Asmik) release with no subtitles

(DVD-5), AND the UK release (Masters of Cinema/Eureka). I am pretty sure Eureka is an organization which is comprised of

serious film enthusiasts, students and filmmakers but i noticed a few weaknesses in the print so, being that is the only print i

have available at this time and being a fan i decided to work on it. I call it the SUPERBIT version. From PAL to NTSC, Bitrate

Before 6,400 After 8,500. Audio (KHZ) 192 to 382 ETC, you get the picture.

[KyFi]

I picked up the Criterion bluray of this late last year, and just got around to watching it. Holy cow, I think it immediately goes into my top 10 favorite Japanese films. Great story, beautifully filmed. It was incredibly atmsopheric, with the mist-shrouded bamboo forests, the ghosts in white---also incredibly cool with the slo-mo somersaulting and acrobatics of the ghosts during some of the action scenes. The wire-work just looked much more classy and natural (or supernatural, as it were) than most of the Chinese stuff. A nice sparse score as well, and great acting performances. Just a perfect ghost/samurai story and excellent filmmaking all around, and the bluray looks fantastic. Highly recommended.

I liked Onibaba as well, but I greatly preferred this one which had a little more of an overt supernatural element and more action-type scenes.

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[OpiumKungFuCracker]

I think I need to pick this up... Been on a Criterion frenzy lately, my last bought criterion disc was The Killing, directed by Stanley Kubrick...

[KyFi]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else saw Kuroneko? It's by the director of Onibaba. A lesser film compared to Onibaba, it was still pretty good. I guess Black Cats are considered bad luck in Japan, too?

Although that was the family cat---the husband makes a reference that they got a black kitten just before he was sent off to war. On the bluray there's an interview with someone involved with the film, or a film historian (can't remember) and he said that this film was popular in Japan for people who love cats because while we normally think of cats as being kind of independent and non-obedient, and kind of indifferent to their owners, this film showed the cat coming back to seek revenge for his murdered human family.