Written by Masayoshi Ônuki and Yoshihiro Ishikawa
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Starring Shigeru Amachi, Katsuko Wakasugi and Shuntarô Emi
Japan, 1959
THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA is based on a famous Japanese kabuki play that's been filmed a bunch of times. This version was directed by Nobuo Nakagawa, who was something of a horror specialist in Japan during the 1950s.
The story concerns a samurai (Shigeru Amachi) who murders his way into a marriage, then decides he'd rather be married to somebody else. Unfortunately for the samurai’s wife, her husband isn't particularly interested in getting a divorce. He's more interested in getting rid of her altogether, which leads to some pretty unpleasant business involving poison, disfigurement and murder. It’s just like a true crime documentary!
The samurai’s wife ultimately does not take this lying down as her ghost comes back to make life miserable for her husband and everyone else involved.
One thing I liked about THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA is how colorful it is. A lot of Japanese horror movies from this period are in black and white, but this one's in vivid color, and Nakagawa really goes crazy with it. Some of the ghostly scenes look like something out of a nightmare, with all sorts of weird lighting and grotesque imagery.
The movie takes its time getting around to the ghostly revenge. For a while, it's almost more of a historical melodrama than a horror movie.
This is a good-looking, atmospheric ghost story, and it's interesting to see an example of Japanese horror from long before the J-horror boom of the '90s and 2000s.
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