Onibaba (1964)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 鬼婆

Writer/Director: Shindō Kaneto

Cinematographer: Kuroda Kiyomi

Composer: Hayashi Hikaru

Cast: Otowa Nobuko, Yoshimura Jitsuko, Satō Kei

Marxist Shindō’s entertainingly visceral film – following the day-to-day lives of a pair of war widows in feudal Japan, who, left to fend for themselves, are forced to resort to murder and theft in order to survive – is a distinctive, well-made, metaphor laden work that takes well-aimed pot-shots at capitalism, war, and religion. Iain.Stott