Shindo uses an impressive array of tricks to set the creepy atmosphere: sparse staging, bold chiaroscuro lighting, avant-garde sound, abrupt cuts, wire work, superimpositions and other special effects. Very atmospheric, almost gothic in tone. Rape is all too common in Japanese cinema, but Shindo uses it as the groundwork for a decidedly feminist agenda. The film does have a few pacing issues and more could have been done with the story, but the visual aspects and the mood make it memorable.

"Moody" and "atmospheric" don't do this film justice. It's every bit as foreboding as Onibaba, but with an emotional complexity and tonal range that film lacked. It even reminded me of Ugetsu to an extent. Shindo and cinematographer Kuroda once again flex their visual muscles; the fog-shrouded forest provides the film with its most memorable imagery, but it's consistently eye-catching, with some excellent effects work as well.

Cool concept, some stunning b/w photography and camera movements. I can also dig the dreamy/spooky tone. The film has a great set-up with a lot of potential, but ultimately devolves into some sort of "kabuki" based, overly-theatrical melodrama, which is a shame. Much preferred the first half (or maybe 1/3rd) of the film to the latter.

A good ghost story with a healthy respect for women and an instinctive contempt for samurai. It's hard to tell if the spooks are really women at all or just a cat-monster pretending to be the murdered women--but that makes the whole thing even more interesting and unsettling. The haunted forest scenes are abstract and dreamlike. Great atmosphere and cinematography,.

holybeautiful

More like "refrigerator movie 2: imma crackle some ice"

This is silly

An eerie, meticulously plotted samurai ghost story full of gorgeous visual flourishes.

"The film morphs into an obsessively regretful dialectic that trips into tragedy after lugubrious, otherworldly speculation." - Joseph Jon Lanthier

Shindo directs another Japanese Kabuki-based fairy-tale, which shares many motives with Onibaba. It's nowhere as good as Onibaba, but it does have that slow-burning spookiness, the odd, understated climax and the pretty b/w photography.