While it's debatable whether Kaneto Shindo's 1964 masterpiece Onibaba is truly a horror film, this later effort has one foot (or claw) firmly planted in the realm of the supernatural. There similarities of course with the casting and the similar rural locations hiding characters during times of war, and many of the thematic elements are just as interesting, adding layers of (incredibly bitter) food for thought as things unfold. However it's the way the history based daytime of the storyline dissolves into the underworld of the night-time that lends this all a nightmarish quality. It's certainly a tragic tale but it's far more theatrical and ghostly.
The opening of the story introduces a key component of the film - the score. Hikaru Hayashi's music is the first element to be added, with dramatic results, as the relentless drumming in the main theme signals this as a story about war and it's after-effects. However it also subtly introduces another component, the world of evil spirits, heard throughout as a kind of eerie scratching that sometimes is the only thing that can bring the battle theme to a stop. But the drums, like the war, can never be completely halted. Simultaneously the title credits introduce the first major location - the bamboo grove. A never ending forest of darkness from which vengeance from beyond the grave is waiting.
Despite the hokey subject matter this isn't a fun spooky time in the world of Japanese Yokai. In fact like the endless bamboo forest this is an unrelenting tale of suffering from which there seems to be no exit. To really set the mood the film starts with at least a dozen starving soldiers finding a remote farm-house occupied by two women. After having their fill of the food and drink the men slake their lust before leaving the residents to die in a fire. It's a grim taste of things to come but it also suggests like many other haunting stories of this nature it's the anger of the dead that drives their spirits to linger in the world. Even the fire itself seems to have no obvious source, it's an otherworldly blaze set alight by the rage of the victims.
Meanwhile the war goes on and Gintoki (Nakamura Kichiemon) returns home to discover the bleak fate of his wife Shige (Kiwako Taichi) and mother (Nobuko Otowa). It's here that the nature of the war is revealed even further as Gintoki, last survivor of a battle in which both sides were massacred, is rewarded for his efforts. There's no concern for his welfare or the lives that were lost. Instead of being sent home he's washed and dressed (in one of the few scenes of levity) and given a new task - to root out the cause of all the dead samurai being found in the local countryside. He's given this status not because of his bravery, but because of luck. His superior on the other hand is an ignorant fool who thinks that all warriors are heroes, and wandering ghosts could never have a reason to hate his men.
There's a lot of repeating imagery to show this all as a cyclical series of events. Death causes more death, and wandering swordsmen are lured into Shige's new demonic home to be executed. It's an incredibly scathing story that suggests the warlords are so out of touch with the costly battles they've set in motion that they don't even know which generals are still alive. Their soldiers are killed but easily replaced, and survivors like Gintoki are dusted off and sent out with a fresh outfit and a new haircut. And all the while those involved are robbed of their humanity, whether it's the front line troops becoming rapists and thieves or their victims who have given up a chance for a peaceful afterlife in order to become blood drinking ghouls.
As a supernatural horror story there are a lot of sequences that hold up for a film of this period, whether it's the eerie cat cries from beyond the veil of the bamboo grove, or the way Gintoki's mother sometimes appears to grow more animalistic in certain shots. The way she moves between the branches in the forest is eerie and effective. There are some moments of violence but this is mostly a mood movie, and it's best to let all the shadows and mist seep in. Samurai travel along the road, the meet a grisly fate in another world, and then the cycle continues. It's interesting that the house seems to be a barren husk in the daytime but at night it's a fully realised home with plenty of rice wine. In the dark the forest is thicker and the sky seems to swirl past with unnatural momentum.
It's not all about death and decay, but it's an unavoidable subject in this story. The brief moments of tenderness when the warrior and his wife are reunited are fleeting at best, and the result of their one final romance is inevitably more doom and gloom. Gintoki has been away for three years and has become detached from this simple farming life forever, while his family are now cursed. There are no satisfying revenge narratives here, it's a dark and unsettling tale that has no final resolution. As snow falls on the remains Shige's house during the finale it's clear that this is not a situation that can be healed. The timber is permanently burned and the inhabitants are unable to find peace even in death.
The result is a shadowy and ethereal piece of work that wastes no time depicting ways that its cast of characters might be stripped of their humanity. The subtle use of violence is disturbing and the vengeance that follows isn't easy to digest. There are a lot of trashy films that in some ways follow this model for a storyline, but they're rarely so bleak or ambitious. There certainly never shot with such great lighting. It's an economic tale both in terms of locations and characters, but it feels grand through the theatrical staging and the depiction of the tragedy at the centre. There are some elements the feel repetitive and the vague nature of the plot may not be for everyone, but it's no less than essential viewing.
4/5
