Finally watched my Blu ray of Kaneto Shindo's Kuroneko (Black Cat) for Halloween!

[waywardsage]

There were a ton of distractions over this Halloween. But I was finally able to care out a piece of late night time last night to take a viewing of Shindo's Kuroneko. To call this film a "horror film" is to do it a diservice! It's expressionistic lighting was astounding. Shindo was keen to show samurai as bastards and terrible individuals. His heart was always with the farmers viewpoint. Some scenes are just shiver inducing with how amazing they look on blu in the stark black and white cinematography.

The whole film had an amazingly dark vibe that I really dug. There wasn't a lot of "bo-gotcha!" scares but more of a dark, lurking presence.

Overall, I was blown away!

[KyFi]

I got the bluray earlier this year, and I had never seen the movie before. I was similarly blown away. It was everything I wanted in a Japanese ghost story---incredibly atmospheric and well-filmed, a great story, even some sword action. A perfect musical score, too. I know a lot of people feel Onibaba is a better film, but for my money I prefer Kuroneko. I would probably put it in my overall top 10 favorite films.