SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE
Kaidan hebi-onna
“Snake Woman Ghost Story” 1968, Synapse Films, DD-2.0/MA/16:9/LB/ST/+, $24.95, 84m 44s, DVD-0 By Tim Lucas
This spectral fable by Nobuo Nakagawa, the late Japanese hor- ror stylist profiled by Bill Cooke in VW 103, is skillfully-made and imaginatively shot, but not particu- larly subtle or effective in the hor- ror department. In 19th century Japan, an elderly farmer dies while pleading with landlord Chobei Onuma (Seizaburo Kawazu, the invisible man in Toho’s INVISIBLE AVENGER) not to reclaim his land. Onuma—unsettled by the man’s increasingly sinister dying words “Even if I have to eat dirt, I’ll pay you back!”—denies their power over him by dismantling the dead man’s farmhouse and forcing his widow (Chiaki Tsukioka) and daughter Asa (Sachiko Kuwahara) to work in his factory for the next
ten years to repay their family debt. No one lives happily ever after: mother and daughter are sepa- rated, made to work punishing hours and subjected to the sexual abuses of Onuma and his son Takeo (Shingo Yamashiro). After the two women commit suicide to find peace, snakes appear as agents of the dead family’s ven- geance—dropping from the ceil- ing, out of trees, religious shrines, rice baskets—most of the time subjective, Poe-like torments of the damned, reflecting and indicting Onuma’s view of farmers as being “the same as worms—worms wrig- gling in a rice field!” Takeo, who rapes Asa more than once, finds his new bride (Yukie Kagawa) half- covered in snakeskin, an image recalling the central figure of Nakagawa’s THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA (1959). If snakes get under your skin, this may work for you; otherwise, you’re likely to find it a pretty but indifferent blend of the slow-moving and overwrought. In his commentary, UC Irvine professor Jonathan M. Hall agrees
that it’s not one of Nakagawa’s better horror films, but argues in its favor as “a socially critical piece... actually political cinema” and indicative of Nakagawa’s wish to move away from the genre in which he had become stereotyped. It’s a smart and in- cisive, if mildly dry, talk, useful in explaining the historical setting of the film and the film’s place in its director’s career; it’s also lamen- tably sporadic, with an announcer jumping in periodically to have us skip ahead two or more chapters for the track’s continuation. The feature recreates the Meiji era well and offers many tactile pleasures like green light hitting the crepey surface of a mosquito net, sug- gesting a veil of snakeskin; the 2.35:1 presentation looks most handsome in “Film” or “Movie” settings with realistic color levels. The mono audio track is fine. A trailer with unique footage and alternate takes (2m 44s) is in- cluded, as well as a poster gal- lery, director’s bio, and liner notes by Alexander Jacoby.
A rapist’s unsuspecting bride (Yukie Kagawa) surprises her husband as a carrier of SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE.
12
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
