ONIBABA

(A.k.a. DEVIL WOMAN; THE HOLE; THE DEMON)

15th Century Japan. A feud between two emperors has the country in a state of disrepair. Samurais fight among the overgrown paddy fields while those who inhabit the huts around them do their best to eke out a living in these harsh times.

A fine example of this set-up opens the film. Two wounded samurais struggle through the windy reeds of one field. When they falter to rest, both are harpooned by spears. Their unseen assassins turn out to be an aging woman (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura). They strip their victims of their wares and then drag their semi-naked corpses to a large pit, which they're unceremoniously dumped into.

Following a brief rest in their hut, the women make their way to the other side of the field to their nearest neighbour, Ushi (Taiji Tonoyama). He's a member of the criminal underworld and readily barters with the women whenever they bring him the spoils of their kills.

This is how the women survive, in the absence of the daughter-in-law's warring samurai husband Kichi.

Enter Hachi (Kei Sato), a wayward soldier and old friend of the husband. He turns up at the ladies' hut one evening, delirious with hunger. He's fed and then quizzed about the husband's whereabouts. He tells of how Kichi was kicked to death by farmers.

A tense evening follows, but eventually the women resolve to keep Hachi around for a while. He can help provide for them in Kichi's absence, after all. However, it's not long before his designs on the daughter-in-law become apparent, and sexual tensions in both women arise...

Writer-director Kaneto Shindo learned his trade under the tuition of Japanese master Kenji Mizoguchi. He was taught well, and by 1951 had progressed into making his own films. By the time of his death last year at the age of 100, he had no less than 45 directorial efforts under his belt. Two of those happen to be among the best Japanese horror films ever made: 1964's ONIBABA and its 1968 companion piece KURONEKO.

ONIBABA is a gem of a film. Its starkly contrasting monochrome images strike the viewer from the offset, the provocative image of an open hole in the ground shot in a manner that suggests female sexuality at its most predatory. From there, the cinematography makes consistently stunning use of the paddy fields' swaying long reeds and the women's fraught expressions. Their performances are suitably aggressive to match.

Shindo's control of pace is excellent, as are his unusual choices in musical cues (marrying a hepcat jazz score with borderline arthouse aesthetics is genius). Lighting and camerawork are all about atmosphere in ONIBABA and the consistency of such throughout is nothing short of a marvel to behold.

A minimalist approach to production helps the film feel free from aging, as does its frequent forays into female nudity. The violence, while never overtly graphic, also feels ahead of its time in its unapologetic, matter-of-fact manner.

Thematically, the film flirts with Buddhist fables, historical fact and intimate human relation issues while never deviating from its deceptively simple tale of murder, lust and loyalty.

The film only truly descends into horror territory during its final act, admittedly. But it's a climax that won't soon be forgotten - and includes one of the most iconic images in the whole of Japanese horror cinema. ONIBABA gets its worldwide blu-ray debut courtesy of Eureka's celebrated Masters of Cinema series. It's presented fully uncut and in 1080p HD, as an MPEG4-AVC file. The film's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio has been adhered to and, of course, the image is 16x9 enhanced.

The first 10 seconds or so of the transfer had me worried that this was going to look rather soft and blown-out. But that's not the case. An alarmingly clean print of the film has been utilised and, as you'd expect from Eureka, every effort has been made to respect its natural filmic qualities. Contrast is bold and imposing; blacks are deep; images are quite profound. ONIBABA's sublime visuals have never been better served on a home cinema format. If you've seen Masters of Cinema's DVD release from a few years back, you'll know that that was a highly impressive affair. This betters that.

Japanese audio is brought to us in lossless 2.0 stereo and sounds similarly magnificent. Optional English subtitles are well-written and, for the main part, are easy to read (it'd have been better though if they were yellow rather than white).

The disc opens with a very simple static main menu page which makes good use of the striking cover art. From there, pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to ONIBABA via 12 chapters.

As almost always with Eureka's Masters of Cinema series, this blu-ray disc is furnished with some really spiffing bonus features.

One of these is an optional 6-minute filmed introduction from REPO MAN director and one-time 'Moviedrome' presenter Alex Cox. Filmed in monochrome and presented in a window-boxed fashion, the always-watchable Cox speaks of the film's looks, themes, its score, its political messages and more. He establishes that ONIBABA is "all about concealment and disguise" early on - and then elaborates further from there. This makes for an educated, engaging and worthwhile accompaniment.

38 minutes of Super-8mm footage shot on the set of the film follows. I suppose this is what would've constituted being 'video diary' footage back in the summer of 1964. It was shot by Sato and it's amazing that it still exists today in a form that can be shared with fans of the film. This is also window-boxed at 1.33:1 and is a tad soft in contrast. But it still makes for fascinating, historical footage. It plays out silently though - it would've been even better if there had been a commentary track over this.

Speaking of which, the main feature gets a fantastic audio commentary track courtesy of Shindo, Kato and Yoshimura. This was recorded back in 2000 and has been made available on DVD previously (as have all of these extras). But, still: wow. This is part of the buzz of watching films on digital format: the people who made ONIBABA talk us through a sitting of it! On this occasion, in pristine HD! It makes for a fascinating listen, with the trio speaking lightly but fluently about scenes and themes with really impressive attention to detail. The whole thing is spoken in Japanese with the benefit of English subtitles.

Things are rounded off on the disc by the film's original theatrical trailer. Over the course of 2 minutes, this plays largely on the film's awesome sound design and stunning visuals. It's great.

But that's not all. This release also comes with an excellent, stylishly presented 36-page booklet which qualifies as a significant bonus feature in itself. This contains an archive interview with Shindo from 1972, retrospective writing from him from 1994, and a couple of other interesting articles (Doug Cummings' 2005 appraisal carries weight). Peppered with attractive stills throughout, this is an extremely welcome addition to an already excellent package.

In my eyes, and quite possibly my eyes alone, ONIBABA is one of the best horror films ever made. But because I love it so, I really anticipated this blu-ray release ... and would've been hyper-critical of it if it didn't cut the mustard. But it does. The film looks great. It sounds fantastic. Despite the fact that we've seen them before, the extras all remain very worthy too...

The bottom line is, ONIBABA is a true classic and to see it on blu-ray with contextual extras is truly heart-warming. If we support these releases, more may hopefully follow.

Review by Stuart Willis