Onibaba is set during a brutal period in history, a Japan ravaged by civil war between rivaling shogunates. Weary from combat, samurai are drawn towards the seven-foot high susuki grass fields to hide and rest themselves, whereupon they are ambushed and murdered by a ruthless mother (Nobuko Otowa) and daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura) team. The women throw the samurai bodies into a pit, and barter their armour and weapons for food. When Hachi (Kei Sato), a neighbour returning from the wars, brings bad news, he threatens the women's partnership. Erotically charged and steeped in the symbolism and superstition of its Buddhist and Shinto roots, Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba is in part a modern parable on consumerism, a study of the destructiveness of sexual desire and filmed within a claustrophobic sea of grass one of the most striking and unique films of the last century, winning Kiyomi Kuroda the Blue Ribbon Award for Cinematography in 1965. The memorably frenetic drumming soundtrack was scored by long-time Shindo collaborator Hikaru Hayashi. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this major work in all its newly restored glory for the first time on DVD in the UK.
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Supplements
- Audio commentary with director Kaneto Shindo & stars Jitsuko Yoshimura and Kei Sato
- Introduction by Alex Cox
- Rare Super-8 (B&W and Colour) footage shot on location by actor Kei Sato
- Theatrical Trailer
- Stills Gallery featuring production sketches and promotional art
- 24-page booklet which featuring an essay on Onibaba by Doug Cummings, notes from Kaneto Shindo on his reasons for creating the film, an English adaptation of A Mask with Flesh Scared a Wife: the Buddhist story that inspired Onibaba, and part 2 of Joan Mellen's interview with Shindo