|
||||
|
Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1959) Country of Origin: Japan PRODUCTION SCRIPT DIRECTION PHOTOGRAPHY MUSIC SOUND DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION CAST PLOT SUMMARY Impecunious samurai Iemon and his conniving servant
Naosuke commit multiple murders to secure the affections of two sisters,
Iwa and Sode. Iemon soon tires of Iwa, and given the opportunity to
marry a wealthy man's daughter, he removes the inconvenience of an
existing wife by poisoning her and slashing to death the masseur he'd
bribed to seduce her. The two bodies are nailed to opposite sides
of a shutter and sunk in a pool. Both victims' disfigured ghosts return
to haunt the two murderers, leading them to further crimes and, ultimately,
retribution. Although the story of Iwa and Iemon has been a frequent subject of
Japanese films, Nobuo Nakagawa's version is generally considered
to be definitive. It was the first of his films to be widely seen
outside Japan, perhaps because its almost Shakespearean blend of tragedy,
horror and the supernatural infuses the movie with universality. The
plight of Iwa and the satisfaction derived from her vengeance strike
chords with audiences everywhere. Nakagawa's achievement is
all the more impressive for his insistence on presenting the tale
in the style of a kabuki drama. He exploits the design and performance
characteristics of that theatrical tradition, whilst seamlessly integrating
cinematic techniques, including lighting, camera angles, camera movement
(note the 5-minute tracking shot that opens the film), editing and
music. The result is a stylized yet gripping ghost tale in which the
main characters are accepted by the viewer as completely human. Japan 1959 1995 2000 The Ghost of Yotsuya - English language
title REMAKE OF
SEQUEL BOOKS Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: Horror, Fantasy
and Science Fiction Films by Thomas Weisser and Yuko Mihara
Weisser p.104 (Miami; Vital Books; 1997) (Entry shows title as Ghost
Story of Yotsuya) OTHER SOURCES screen KEYWORDS disfigurement, ghosts, murder, play into film, samurai
Last Updated: 1 January, 2009
|
||||
