Onibaba
Dir. by Kaneto Shindo
1964. 103 min. 35 mm. B&W.

In Japanese, with English subtitles.

Deep within the wind-swept marshes of war-torn medieval Japan, an impoverished mother and her daughter-in-law eke out a lonely, desperate existence by murdering lost samurai and selling their belongings for grain. When a bedraggled neighbor returns from the skirmishes, lust, jealousy, and rage threaten to destroy the trio’s tenuous existence, until an ominous demon mask ultimately seals the trio’s horrifying fate. Driven by primal emotions, dark eroticism, a frenzied score by Hikaru Hayashi, and stunning images both lyrical and macabre, Kaneto Shindo’s chilling folktale Onibaba is a singular cinematic experience. —Courtesy the Criterion Collection

Part of the series Of Ghosts, Samurai and War: A Series of Classic Japanese Film, held in conjunction with the exhibition Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan, on view at Asia Society Museum from February 9 to May 8, 2016.