News

by Nick Taylor

Cats! We love ‘em. I know I do. Are we all cat people? No, but variety is the spice of life. Spirits of wronged women avenging their own deaths? Well loved across all kinds of cultural traditions and generic conventions. Putting cats and wronged women together, then, should be an instant recipe for success, yes? Especially if the title in question is as lauded as Kaneto Shindo’s 1968 film Kuroneko?

Set roughly one millenia before it was filmed, Kuroneko follows two women, mother Yone (Nobuko Otawa) and her daughter-in-law Shige (Kiwako Taichi), who live together in a bamboo cottage on the outskirts of a peasant village...

Building a film when almost nothing happens until the finale comes to blow every kind of audience away has been a trait (even if a rare one) of Japanese cinema for many years, probably finding its apogee when Asami stretched that piano wire in Takashi Miike’s “Audition“. Mitsuo Yanagimachi does not go that far in terms of extremity, but the shocking element is not toned down at all, while, furthermore, the presentation of the rest of the film is equally exquisite, although in completely different terms. “Fire Festival” is the most acclaimed film of Mitsuo Yanagimachi, being the first of his works to be released in the Us, having screened in Cannes and netting a Silver Leopard in Locarno.

The story is based on a real-life case and takes place in the town of Nigishima, a seaside setting that also includes thick forests, situated in the Kumano area, which...

Among the most notable exports of Japanese horror films to the world at large is the onyro, involving tales of malicious ghosts and spirits interacting with the human world. The influence can still be felt to this day with ghost stories including everything from “Ringu”, “Ju-On”, “Dark Water” and many more similar such films not just from Japan but around the world, most of which trace their inspiration to classic efforts including this one from revered director Kaneto Shindo.

Traveling to a remote village, Raiko Minamoto (Kei Sato) and his samurai gang find Yone (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter Shigei, (Kiwako Taichi) alone in the village, then rape and murder both of them before setting fire to their home and continuing on. When a black cat arrives at the scene afterward, the other members of the samurai group, out on their own traveling the land by themselves,...

Hey, let me start off here by welcoming my friends who followed me on my Criterion Reflections blog and are sticking around to carry on my chronological exploration of the Criterion Collection. Reading my stuff here on Criterion Cast is probably not that big of a jump for most of you, since I’ve been writing for this site since 2010, but this post does mark a significant transition for me. I appreciate the positive comments that have been sent my way in various formats since I came to the end of that particular rope a couple weeks ago. But enough about that then! I’m eager to share my thoughts on Kuroneko, a beautifully creepy and hauntingly mesmerizing film from 1968 directed by Kaneto Shindo.

David’s quick take for the tl;dr media consumer:

Impressive, atmospheric Japanese ghost story that employs stark minimalist set design, poised performances in the Noh tradition and brisk,...

English language film has long been a place for some of the greatest horror film directors of all time. All the way back to Alfred Hitchcock, we have seen the genre grow and develop sub-genres, thanks to the public’s ongoing thirst for fear and the possibility of danger around every turn. But, for every Saw or Hostel or terrible remake of classic English-language horror films, there are inventive, terrifying films made somewhere else that inspire and even outdo many of our best Western world horror films. This list will count down the fifty definitive horror films with a main language that isn’t English; some may have some English-language parts in them, but they are, for the most part, foreign. Enlighten yourself. Broaden your horizons. People can get murdered and tortured in every language.

50. Kuroneko (1968)

English Title: Black Cat

Directed by: Kaneto Shindo

Japanese for “Black Cat,” Kuroneko is...

English language film has long been a place for some of the greatest horror film directors of all time. All the way back to Alfred Hitchcock, we have seen the genre grow and develop sub-genres, thanks to the public’s ongoing thirst for fear and the possibility of danger around every turn. But, for every Saw or Hostel or terrible remake of classic English-language horror films, there are inventive, terrifying films made somewhere else that inspire and even outdo many of our best Western world horror films. This list will count down the fifty definitive horror films with a main language that isn’t English; some may have some English-language parts in them, but they are, for the most part, foreign. Enlighten yourself. Broaden your horizons. People can get murdered and tortured in every language.

50. Kuroneko (1968)

English Title: Black Cat

Directed by: Kaneto Shindo

Japanese for “Black Cat,” Kuroneko is...

Kurneko

Blu-ray | DVD

Directed by Kaneto Shindo

Written by Kaneto Shindo

Starring Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi

The Criterion Collection

Release Date: October 18, 2011

You can feel it in the air. The weather is changing, leaves are falling, and costumes are about to be brought out, as Halloween is just a day away. And while the majority of people will be going to the well for their cinematic slices of terror, Criterion, in their inescapable wisdom, has decided to not only follow up last year’s great release of the cult horror masterpiece Hausu with yet another cult horror offering, but hell, even cats are involved with this sucker.

Kuroneko is the name of this atmospheric gem, and it comes to us from the mind of Japanese auteur Kaneto Shindo. Best known for his fellow Criterion staple, the hauntingly devastating Onibaba, Kurnoeko (Black Cat) is equally as meditative and brooding,...

Chicago – Halloween just isn’t the same without an Onryō. Thanks to America’s tireless remakes of Japanese horror films, the materialization of Onryōs in pop culture has become as much of a seasonal tradition as witches and goblins. They’re often characterized by long black hair, white robes, bodily contortions, tragic backstories and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance beyond the grave.

In short, Onryōs unnervingly embody the old adage that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…even a dead one.” It’s easy to see how spine-tingling modern classics like “Ringu” and “Ju-on: The Grudge” followed in the ghostly footsteps of Kaneto Shindô’s overlooked 1968 masterwork, “Kuroneko” (“Black Cat”). Though the film is more hypnotic than scary, it still manages to creep under the skin as it spins a tale of real emotional and erotic power.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

As in Shindô’s better-known 1964 classic, “Onibaba,” this film...

Rank the week of October 18th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #1487

Win Percentage: 47%

Times Ranked: 8433

Top-20 Rankings: 50

Directed By: Rob Marshall

Starring: Johnny Depp • Penélope Cruz • Ian McShane • Kevin McNally • Geoffrey Rush

Genres: Action • Adventure • Costume Adventure • Fantasy • Sea Adventure • Swashbuckler

Rank This Movie

Bad Teacher

(Blu-ray & DVD | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #3281

Win Percentage: 42%

Times Ranked: 3361

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Cameron Diaz • Justin Timberlake • Jason Segel • Lucy Punch • Phyllis Smith

Genres: Comedy • Farce • Sex Comedy

Rank This Movie

Red State

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2738

Win Percentage: 53%

Times Ranked: 1781

Top-20 Rankings: 12

Directed By: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks • John Goodman • Melissa Leo • Kevin Pollak • Michael Angarano

Genres: Drama • Horror • Religious Drama • Thriller

Rank This Movie

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest

(Blu-ray & DVD...

Release Date: Oct. 18, 2011

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Kichiemon Nakamura and Kiwako Taichi close their eyes to the growing horror of Kuroneko.

The poetic and atmospheric 1968 Japanese horror film Kuroneko is set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, where a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispatch the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with his own personal demons as well.

Directed by noted Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba), Kuroneko (which translates into Black Cat in English) is an eerie twilight tale with a shocking feminist angle. Today, it’s also highly regarded for its ghostly special effects and exquisite cinematography.

Presented in Japanese with English subtitles, Criterion’s editions of the film offer a new high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray and new and improved English subtitle translation.

Here’s...