Kuroneko (1968)

AKA: Yabu no naka no kuroneko

Beware the haunted women who lurk in the bamboo forest as black cats craving the blood of samurai!

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Release Date: Feb 24, 1968
Rated: N/A | Runtime: 99 Mins | Language: Japanese
Director: Kaneto Shindô
Stars: Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi, Kei Satō, Taiji Tonoyama, Rokkô Toura, Hideo Kanze

Summary

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onry ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women in an eerie, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight.

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KURONEKO Original Theatrical Trailer (Masters of Cinema)

What to Expect

Kuroneko is a unique, art-house movie about two women assaulted and murdered by Samurai soldiers passing through the woods. They burn down the small house to cover their tracks, and then disappear into the bamboo forest. There is a type of black and white cinematography that makes you feel the comfort and warmth of the glowing beams that light a person, or room, in a way that makes you feel centered and safe. Kuroneko is not one of these examples. This is high contrast photography taken to the extent of absolute blackness, giving the feeling that you cannot ever see what's going to happen, but you have to just wait for it. And the thing that's going to happen involves a white-clad ghost woman dropping from from the inky-black sky, ready for revenge. She will never let any man reach the safety of the village gates, and with good reason. Using the thick, bamboo forest as a setting is something that is unsettling, and something a lot of Western eyes may not have not seen before. It looks like the space between two worlds where a vengeful, supernatural cat-spirit can slice you to ribbons.

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Featured on:
Black & White By Choice - Image Contrast Horror

Movie Review: Kuroneko (1968) Review

Critic Reviews:

The classic tale of spectral revenge, it is a film of the early antiheroes of the written word and moving picture; spirits betrayed by fate, corrupted by fellow man.

– HNN

While not the fastest-moving film around, there’s still plenty of stuff to like about “Kuroneko” making it one of the top entries in this genre around.

– Asian Movie Pulse

Kuroneko is not the feminist manifest some make it out to be and it is not a defense of paternalistic values either.

– Psycho-Cinematography