DVD Kuroneko

3 Star

Another acclaimed ghost story from Kaneto Shindo, the director of Onibaba, and one of a series of early releases from Eureka! Entertainment’s high-profile Masters of Cinema series to spotlight this acclaimed director, who is still with us at 99 years of age! An older member of the Japanese New Wave, Kuroneko is from his prime period of internationally acclaimed films, which includes Onibaba and The Naked Island.

"Kuroneko is a well-made and exciting sample of the Japanese ghost fable genre."

A mother and daughter living on a small farm are raped by a troop of battle-weary soldiers who wander out of a bamboo forest seeking sustenance and respite. As the soldiers pile on one after the other, Yone (mother) and Shige (daughter-in-law), effectively pass out with exhaustion. As the soldiers leave, they set fire to the farmhouse, and the two women, already as good as dead from their ordeal, lie there as the flames engulf them. A black cat meows and licks its wounds.

Soon after, a mysterious young woman shows up at the town gate and persuades a samurai – the leader of the rapists – to escort her back to her abode, which is hidden deep within the bamboo forest. Her appearance is eerie, and she glides in the air over a puddle along the path. The samurai enters the home, where the woman’s mother shows up and brings her sake to serve the samurai. The young woman drinks and flirts with the man, until they end up in the bedroom. While the ‘mother ghost’ performs a ritualistic dance, the younger ghost cavorts with the man – until she suddenly bites at his neck as he screams in pain. The mother ghost’s ritualistic dance climaxes with the samurai’s death, and we now realize these are the ghosts of the raped and murdered mother and daughter-in-law.

The ghosts lure samurai after samurai into their abode, within which a cat’s meow can be heard before the victim succumbs. The two ghosts’ appearance at the gate is usually preceded by that of the black cat, and they show catlike features in flashes. The leader of the samurai, Raiko, is alarmed and admonishes his men harshly for failing to stop this scourge. His prayers seem answered when Gintoki returns from the battles, the last man standing in a muddy marsh conflict, in which he dispatched a bear-like warrior of great fame. Raiko elevates Gintoki and tasks him with solving the ghost problem, neither of them knowing that Gintoki is the son and husband of the two dead women.

Gintoki is crushed at the mystery of his burned-down farmhouse and cannot get an answer as to what happened to his wife and his mother. He waits at the town gate for the ghost, and is drawn in like all the rest, but they both eventually realise who they are. Reunited, Gintoki and his wife Shige are overcome by their passion, and spend seven days in blissful, but forbidden embrace. Things come to a head as they are constrained by the laws of the spirit world, and as Raiko threatens to kill Gintoki if he cannot destroy the ghosts…

Kaneto Shindo is a careful and elegant director, with a lovely visual style that comes through strongly in this film. He uses the setting of the bamboo forest to great effect with the help of Kiyomi Kuroda’s stately black-and-white cinematography. The story is a fable-like ghost tale, about the revenge sought by the victims of men of war, who have crossed over to the side of evil. The film boasts strong performances from Nobuko Otowa as the mother ghost Yone, Kichiemon Nakamura as Gintoki, and Kei Sato as the somewhat humorously moustachioed leader of the samurai.

Shindo depicts the warriors in the film as men of unabashed bravado. The lead rapist, just before he becomes the first victim of the ghosts, boasts that the samurai can take anything they want. He then proceeds to take the younger Shige for the second time, until Shindo here revels in revenge against man’s basest warlike instincts, as Shige’s catlike attack goes right for the samurai’s jugular vein.

Any weaknesses only become apparent when you compare it to the work of Shindo’s contemporaries, Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi.

But as with any good director, the portrayal becomes more complex, and the film gets more interesting, as we are introduced to Gintoki, the husband/son, who himself has become a newly powerful warrior, having just completed his first truly heroic victory. Gintoki’s introduction into the film is an exemplar of cinematic entrances. After a frenetic marsh battle, Gintoki arrives at Raiko’s HQ dressed like he’s gone native, caked in mud, and proudly holding the severed head of his adversary, while a throng of Raiko’s women giggle and swoon at his tale. Gintoki recounts the story of his conquest with unbridled energy, while throughout the film, Raiko struts with a masculine pomposity.

On the other side of the equation, Shindo portrays the two women and Gintoki with enormous sensitivity as they reconnect. Tears seem always to be welling in the eyes of all three characters. It is almost as if Shindo is directly opposing that which is warlike and masculine with that which is sensitive, feminine and profoundly strong in its own way.

Any weaknesses only become apparent when you compare it to the work of Shindo’s contemporaries, Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi. The film has a bit of a dry centre, and lacks the passionate intensity that infuses every scene of Kobayashi’s films, such as Harakiri. Kuroneko is also too straightforward of a fable to compare favourably with the depth of intellectual exploration and filmmaking bravado that one gets in the work of Kurosawa. While Shindo does touch on themes of war and feminine power, they are the only profound themes of the film, and the plot does not bring them out in direct enough conflict to completely satisfy. There are also a few small scenes where not much is added, and the audience is a little bit ahead of the characters. The film improves as it progresses, though, especially when we experience Gintoki’s and Shige’s star-crossed anguish, and as Raiko escalates the plot to a resolution. The film is at its best in some harrowing confrontations between ghost-mother and son.

Kuroneko is a well-made and exciting sample of the Japanese ghost fable genre – a cultural hallmark everyone should experience at least once. While it may not earn a place in the pantheon of the greatest Japanese films, if you’ve never experienced a film by Kaneto Shindo, you owe it to yourself to give a listen to yet another talented voice from the rich history of Japanese cinema.