Horrorfest 2013: Kuroneko

The 1968 Japanese film KURONEKO is a ghost story set in war torn Japan in an era when Samurai war lords ruled the country and civil war upset civilian peasant life. As the film opens, a young woman (Kiwako Taichi) and her mother-in-law (Nobuko Otowa) are raped and murdered as starving and battle-weary Samurai invade their farm. The man of the house (Nakamura Kichiemon II) isn't around because he was forcibly conscripted by another group of Samurai.

It isn't giving anything away to let you know that soon after this horrific scene, the two dead women reappear as ghosts and begin entrapping Samurai traveling on the road, luring them back to their new home deep in a bamboo grove, seducing them and murdering them. These ghosts are into blood drinking, and they coldly go about their business of offering one Samurai after another sake, tempting them with the daughter-in-law and then BAM -- revenge.

The local governor gets wind of the tales of ghosts preying on Samurai and sends a young warrior who has recently proven himself on the battle field to dispatch the monsters. This turns out to be none other than -- you guessed it -- the son/husband of the ghostly duo. He quickly recognizes the true identity of the ghosts and both parties must decide -- do they do away with each other, or give in to their desires to be together again?

In the brief description above, this sounds like a cheap rape/revenge exploitation flick. But it's not. The thing is, this movie is beautiful. The lush black and white photography makes great use of totally black space to set a lot of the film in what seems like a floating limbo. This is almost Samurai noir, the way black fills the screen. The film also makes great use of nature, however, with the bamboo stalks and fields of high grass and even falling snow in the climactic scene standing in as important characters.

Like a couple other movies this month so far, KURONEKO is not straight up horror. Even though it deals with ghosts, there's also room for a nice love story and some Samurai action. Like some other early Japanese horror films I've seen, KURONEKO has almost a fairy tale quality to it. The title literally translates to "Black Cat" and refers to a cat who lingers around the ghosts and seems to have something to do with their resurrection and powers. I wonder if Tim Burton saw this movie before he made BATMAN RETURNS.