Tonight's movie was "Kuroneko" (1968) from Japanese director Kaneto Shindo, released by Criterion. Wow, SB! You have gotta see this movie, just for the photography alone, even if you don't like Japanese films. Director Shindo is the same guy who made the more famous "Onibaba" in 1964. You could say that the two films are companion pieces. Both are horror films, with "Onibaba" being more overt and action oriented, and "Kuroneko" - a ghost story - being more otherwordly, hypnotic, and downright creepy. The opening 25 minutes are just plain spooky.
Two women, the mother of a soldier and her daughter-in-law, live alone in a small wooden dwelling on the edge of a bamboo grove. The elder woman's son is away at war. The time is unspecified, but it could be in the Middle Ages of Feudal Japan, when men ran the show 100%. Japan, in the old days, was macho to the core. It was the Age Of The Samurai.
Director Shindo, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 100 (!), must be given credit as a pro-female artist. Can I use that term instead of Feminist, which has connotations I don't like? Thanks. I don't like Feminists, Liberals, Right-Wingers, any kind of Strident People Who Want To Pick A Fight, And Who Identify Themselves With A Group Of Whatever Stripe. Screw 'em, says I. And I think Director Shindo would agree, because he takes on the formerly revered Samurai and shows them for what they really were, which was just a bunch of savages.
In the movie, the two women living alone are attacked by a ravenous group of Samurai in the middle of what must have been an ongoing war of great length. I don't need to tell you what the Samurai did to these women, but Director Shindo gets credit for not making it graphic. Their small house is burned down in the process, and they die along with it. That is the opening scene.
The women then become Ghosts. The title "Kuroneko" translates to "Black Cat" (at least that's what the subtitle says), and a beautiful black cat is featured in close up, early on in the proceedings, to demonstrate that the deceased mother and daughter-in-law can now transform into a monstrous feline spirit, a Spirit that is dedicated to killing every last Samurai in the land. Upon dying, the two women made a pact with the Japanese version of The Devil, that they would kill all Samurai if given the supernatural power to do so.
The only trouble is that the elder woman's son - her daughter-in-law's husband - has become a Samurai himself as he was off fighting in war. And now a conflict is entered into the picture, because the women have made a pact with The Devil, and a pact is a pact, especially with that guy.
So you have a Grand Fable in the context of an eerie ghost story. Some scenes are set in the Bamboo Forest, incredibly lit and photographed, with swirling fog, and there is one effect that was used that I found especially weird and effective. One of the women would be shown emerging from the fog, in the forest, in a distant shot. All dressed in white silk, she looks like a ghost. She walks forward, toward the camera, taking those short little teeny tiny pitter patter steps that you see Japanese women walking with, in the Geisha tradition. Subservient steps.
But then the camera would cut to a closer shot, following the woman from just behind her back, at an angle. And the effect was really creepy and ghostly, because all of a sudden she appears to be gliding, like a ghost. First, the pitter patter feet, then the close up on the back and motionless shoulders - the Gliding Effect. And I think they achieved it by having the actress stand on a dolly and pulling her along, with the camera only filming her from the waist up. But it was the quick edit that did the trick, from Tiny Feet to suddenly still Shoulders.
Sorry for the spoilers, but I had to describe the Gliding Effect in this movie, because it was so effective and so genuinely weird.
"Kuroneko" is an artistic masterpiece, and I think I am gonna have to give it the edge over "Onibaba", which I have owned on dvd for a decade, and have considered a classic horror film since I first saw it. But "Kuroneko" is even better. It must be noted that Japanese movies of this period are slow paced, and so you must have patience, especially during the middle third of this 99 minute movie. But if you like ghost stories, the pacing is a small price to pay to see the type of cinematic art that is not only not created anymore, but not even attempted. I wish it was being attempted, but we are living in different times now as far as cinema is concerned.
So see "Kuroneko", which gets a gigantic Two Thumbs Up from me, and then while you're at it, watch "Onibaba" too. That one is more of an action film, but similarly spooky.
That's all I know for tonight. I went to Aliso at 3pm, but nowdays the Sun is already going down in the canyon by that time, so I didn't bring my cam. Photos will resume soon enough, and in just a few weeks the daylight will be back on the upswing, increasing by a minute per day after December 21st.
I am reading my books, working on this week's song (an easy one), and I am thinking that a lot of good things are gonna happen in the New Year.
I bet you agree. :):)
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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