Considered director
Nobuo Nakagawa's masterpiece, loosely based on the 19th Century play written
by Nanboku Tsuruya. This same story was also filmed two years previously
as GHOST
OF YOTSUYA by director Masaki Mouri. The story deals with rogue
samurai Iemon who kills a man and marries his daughter. He grows tired
of the girl and wishes to marry his wealthy mistress instead. Iemon tricks
his wife into an adulterous affair at which time he kills both her and
the amorous lover. The two return as ghosts and attack Iemon on his wedding
night.
Visually, this is
a stunning motion picture, one of the first color horror films in Japan.
It established director Nakagawa as the Nippon Hitchcock. His films -
including this one - were enormously successful because they appealed
to both the high and low-brow audiences. Nakagawa was never reluctant
to use buckets of blood nor gratuitous sexual situation, but yet his films
could also be appreciated as two dimensional psychological dramas.
Japanese
film; black and white; original widescreen format 16:9, uncut (78 min.)
version, in Japanese language with removable English or Greek subtitles,
in DVD encoded for ALL REGIONS, playable on any American machine. Extras
include original trailer and bio information.
