Taking part in ICM's 50's Viewing Challenge,I decided to look at what my smallest download files from the decade are. Recently seeing the superb One Cut of the Dead (2017-also reviewed),I was happy to find a number of 50's Japanese Horror titles with swift run-times, leading to me going for shade under the J-Horror tree.
View on the film:
Flickering the burning need for revenge from beyond the grave as two burning balls of fire flies hanging above the head of the killer, director Goro Kadono & cinematographer Hiroshi Suzuki superbly brush J-Horror with the long shadowed stylisation of German Expressionism, expressed in the death face mask of the returning dead, refined minimalist, side shots of the painters family falling into the arms of the killer, and a wonderful dip into a painted surreal final.
Taking the brush from Encho San'yutei's novel, the adaptation by Torao Tanabe takes a J-Horror revenge outline, and divides it with welcomed quirks,from the mum saying she can no longer give breast milk, to the growing number of former servants joining forces with the avenging dead husband. Whilst serving up sharp revenge, Tanabe refreshingly puts that brush down, to instead draw a final flight of fantasy message of personal fulfilment from eyes drawn on the mother tree.
View on the film:
Flickering the burning need for revenge from beyond the grave as two burning balls of fire flies hanging above the head of the killer, director Goro Kadono & cinematographer Hiroshi Suzuki superbly brush J-Horror with the long shadowed stylisation of German Expressionism, expressed in the death face mask of the returning dead, refined minimalist, side shots of the painters family falling into the arms of the killer, and a wonderful dip into a painted surreal final.
Taking the brush from Encho San'yutei's novel, the adaptation by Torao Tanabe takes a J-Horror revenge outline, and divides it with welcomed quirks,from the mum saying she can no longer give breast milk, to the growing number of former servants joining forces with the avenging dead husband. Whilst serving up sharp revenge, Tanabe refreshingly puts that brush down, to instead draw a final flight of fantasy message of personal fulfilment from eyes drawn on the mother tree.