1-World Festival of Foreign Films
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"Onibaba"
1964
Directed by Kaneto Shindo

A stylish Japanese ghost tale, set in medieval Japan. A peasant woman and her daughter manage an existence by impersonating demons--sexually luring soldiers away from their comrades and murdering them. A warrior manages to save his life by seducing the daughter, but the mother's sorcery conjures up a hideous revenge. Mixing graphic violence with sex, Onibaba is an exotic, terrifying, supernatural fantasy. Japanese with English subtitles.
103 minutes.
 

Guest Comments

From:  "GTSS"

"The comments accompanying the film are all wrong. It is a middle-aged woman and her daughter-in-law, NOT her daughter - this is crucial to the plot. The two make a living by luring Samurai warriors along a path through the reeds, with a hidden pit in it - they step over, the warriors fall in and are killed, and the women climb down a few days later (the pit is very deep) to take the armour, which they then sell. In the UK the original title was The Pit. One day Hachi, the son/husband's best mate returns from the war to say that the son/ husband is dead. After a few days the daughter-in-law begins visiting him in his hut for a bit of how's-your-father. The Mother realises what is going on and is furiously jealous, but also fearful in case Hachi steals her daughter-in-law away, leaving her to survive on her own. The jealousy/ frustration leads to a rather bizarre scene with a convenently-shaped tree, which brought the house down when I first saw the film about 30 years ago. The film is quite chilling, but the real heroes are the reeds."