Onibaba (1964)

“Onibaba deserves something more than cult status.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Shot in icy monochrome, Kaneto Shindō’s Onibaba is a chilling folktale driven by primal emotions and dark eroticism, set against the eerily menacing landscape of a vast susuki field, where anyone—or anything—could be hiding.

Deep in the windswept marshes of war-torn sixteenth-century Japan, two women sustain themselves by killing lost samurai and selling their belongings. After hearing that her husband has died, the younger of the women pursues an affair with a neighbour, only to find herself being harassed by an ominous demon-masked figure.

Shindō transforms a Shin Buddhist parable told to him as a child into an erotic cautionary tale of unrequited passion, human greed and carnality, soundtracked by a frenzied musical score by Hikaru Hayashi.

Screening as part of FLESH//GHOST//MACHINE: Japanese Nightmares.