Kuroneko (1968) Review

Title: Kuroneko
Year: 1968
Director: Kaneto Shindo
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

Kaneto Shindo is a Japanese Director best known in the West for his works The Naked Island (1960) and Onibaba (1964), both of which have been released on DVD by the Criterion Collection. He started his career as an art director in the 1930's, but would go on to make his own pictures in the 1950's. He is best known for socialist & erotic themes, but in Kuroneko's case he proves himself a master of horror. 

Two women (Kichiemon Nakamura & Nobuku Otowa) are raped and killed by samurai soldiers. Soon they reappear as vengeful ghosts who seduce and brutally murder the passing samurai.

Kaneto Shindo’s elegant nightmare of earthbound violence and otherworldly revenge wasn’t the first film to be rooted in Japanese folk stories about onryo, the vengeful spirits of those who were abused in life, but it is one of the most remarkable. Kuroneko is wonderfully poetic; haunting in its atmosphere and full of tense moments. As time passes, the ending of the picture becomes more difficult to predict and thus it's a film that will keep you on the edge of your seat. 

Kiyomi Kuroda’s silky cinematography and Hikaru Hayashi’s percussive score add to the eerie atmosphere. Impressive lighting, daring cinematography and unusual acting all add to heightening the sense of dread throughout the picture. The script adds necessary drama to keep this from just being a seductive snuff film. Overall this is quite an impressive feat.

Sliding from the cinematic to the realistic with ease, Kuroneko is a fun picture to watch that is fairy easy to follow for Non-Japanese audiences. I'd go so far as to say you could watch the film with the subtitles off and still have a thrilling time. I look forward to watching more of this director's cinematography.