03-08-2025, 12:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-08-2025, 12:48 AM by Drunk Monk.)
This little gem completely snuck by me. I was completely unaware of it until it popped up in the Criterion collection so I gave it a watch and was delighted. It’s a love story, a horror tale and a yokai parable all wrapped up in an astonishingly well made film for the time. A vacationing teacher searches for his friend who disappeared 3 years ago while researching folk legends. He arrives at a drought stricken village near a hidden pond that is believed to house a dragon. Then he meets a mysterious beautiful woman…
What starts as a period piece (1913) quickly shifts to an unsettling mystery, complete with eerie theremin music. Then it turns into a yokai show with tokusatsu costumes when a fish and a crab take human forms. Then there’s societal commentary when a leader from the diet visits the village with polished rice aid, and turns the crowd ugly by suggesting a human sacrifice is needed to placate the dragon. Then there’s the yokai princess and an ancient curse. Then the flood. The special effects are simple yet effective. A miniature village, akin to what’s in kaiju movies, is destroyed by a tidal wave, and the effects are solid enough to carry the terror of it. Some of the yokai stuff gets cheesy, but yokai is intrinsically cheesy so that works too. The sword vs kama fight is crowd mayhem, and the ultimate tragedy is painfully romantic.
There’s an early scene where the teacher first arrives to the village but the drought dust gets in his eye. He asks for water and a woman offers to moisten it, then whips out her boob & squirts milk in his eye.
Mildly D00M recommended & only if you’re into vintage Japanese cinema. It’s fascinating storytelling for the era. Once it got going, I was completely engaged.
What starts as a period piece (1913) quickly shifts to an unsettling mystery, complete with eerie theremin music. Then it turns into a yokai show with tokusatsu costumes when a fish and a crab take human forms. Then there’s societal commentary when a leader from the diet visits the village with polished rice aid, and turns the crowd ugly by suggesting a human sacrifice is needed to placate the dragon. Then there’s the yokai princess and an ancient curse. Then the flood. The special effects are simple yet effective. A miniature village, akin to what’s in kaiju movies, is destroyed by a tidal wave, and the effects are solid enough to carry the terror of it. Some of the yokai stuff gets cheesy, but yokai is intrinsically cheesy so that works too. The sword vs kama fight is crowd mayhem, and the ultimate tragedy is painfully romantic.
There’s an early scene where the teacher first arrives to the village but the drought dust gets in his eye. He asks for water and a woman offers to moisten it, then whips out her boob & squirts milk in his eye.
Mildly D00M recommended & only if you’re into vintage Japanese cinema. It’s fascinating storytelling for the era. Once it got going, I was completely engaged.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse