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Onibaba

Japan

1964

103 Min
Black and White
2.35:1
Japanese
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
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DIR Kaneto Shindo

SCR Kaneto Shindo

DP Kiyomi Kuroda

CAST Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato, Jukichi Uno, Taiji Tonoyama

ED Toshio Enoki

MUSIC Hikaru Hayashi

SOUND Tetsuya Ohashi

Synopsis

Deep within the wind-swept marshes of war-torn medieval Japan, an impoverished mother and her daughter-in-law eke out a lonely, desperate existence. Forced to murder lost samurai and sell their belongings for grain, they dump the corpses down a deep, dark hole and live off of their meager spoils. When a bedraggled neighbor returns from the skirmishes, lust, jealousy, and rage threaten to destroy the trio’s tenuous existence, before an ominous, ill-gotten demon mask seals the trio’s horrifying fate. Driven by primal emotions, dark eroticism, a frenzied score by Hikaru Hayashi, and stunning images both lyrical and macabre, Kaneto Shindo’s chilling folktale Onibaba is a singular cinematic experience. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Kaneto-shindo

Kaneto Shindo

Japanese filmmaker/scriptwriter Kaneto Shindo’s most famous directorial efforts include The Island (1960), a nearly silent, but powerful glimpse at a lonely farmer’s daily toil, and Children of Hiroshima (1952), a wrenching and sentimental account of the city’s post-bomb aftermath. Shindo was born in Hiroshima and got his start in films as an art director during the late ’30s. Less than a decade later, he wrote his first screenplays and went on to work with a number of Japanese directors, including Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa. In 1950, Shindo was a co-founder of a production company. He made his directorial debut in 1951 with The Story of a Beloved Wife.
He was married to actress Nobuko Otowa (1925–1994), who appeared in several of his films. He won the 1996 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year for A Last Note.— allmovie guide 

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Displaying 4 of 21 wall posts.
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troper

24May10

But...but...why isn't it watchable anymore? I want to watch it again!

Picture of matt

matt

21Feb10

Wow!

Picture of Knut

Knut

15Feb10

Quite good, intense ending

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
Untitled-1

The Forgotten: Skeleton Quay

By David Cairns on March 5, 2009
  DR. LIVINGSKELETON, I PRESUME?   The Living Skeleton is a lot of fun, or at least, that was my experience, or I think it was. I have to couch things in the most uncertain terms, because
read article

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Reviews

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Untitled

By Tony Paulett​o on November 14, 2009

With astounding black and white photography, Onibaba explores the lives of mother and daughter-in-law through a haunting world thick with symbolism and neck-high grass. What starts as a bleak profile…  read review

Untitled

By Sam Cooper on June 1, 2009

A delicious, dangerously sensual film from David Lynch, one that I just might consider to be his best film of all time (yeah I said it. I like this better than Blue Velvet). Naomi Watts is fantastic…  read review

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DVD

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