Kaneto Shindo - Onibaba (Japan, 1964) ofdb
Eine aufwühlende Anklage des Krieges, vermittelt durch eine blutige Legende aus dem mittelalterlichen Japan: zwei Frauen hausen inmitten einer riesigen Schilflandschaft in einer Bambushütte. Um zu überleben, lauern sie desertierten Kriegern auf, töten sie und rauben sie aus. Der Film, der schockierende und äußerst poetische Bilder aneinanderfügt, paßt nicht in das übliche Schema des Antikriegsfilms - und ist umso mehr ein solcher. In "Onibaba" wird der Krieg von seinen Opfern liquidiert und verhilft ihnen so zum Überleben.
deutsches-filminstitut.de Review "The Hole. Deep and Dark. From ancient times its darkness has lasted."
These are the opening lines to Kaneto Shindo's 1963 film Onibaba, describing a large deep pit in the midst of an expansive field of thick, tall reeds. What does the Hole represent and what is this ageless darkness it possesses? The answer to these questions is the heart of the Onibaba story. Just as in the midst of a field brimming with life there lies a pit of foreboding darkness, so also within the realm of humanity potentially brimming with life and productivity there exists an ageless darkness; an evil which ruptures the world of daylight and leads to nether regions inhabited by objects of fear and dread. [...]
sarudama.com
Onibaba is inspired by a Buddhist tale enclosing a very well defined morality. Although keeping its essential elements, focused into the narrative's climax, Shindo does not place his film in religious morality — his concerns are very earthly ones.
Mother and daughter-in-law attack soldiers in order to trade their loot for food. Hachi's return will jeopardize their partnership. The film's premise points to one of the themes:
survival under extreme conditions. When we first meet our main characters we may feel appalled for, even before we have seen their faces, we already know they are ruthless killers. But as the narrative unfolds, at the light of the historical background, the label (“killers”) is diluted. We set aside any judgement that the film does not intend to make.
When Sato Kei's character arrives, sexual desire emerges as the main concept underlying throughout the film. The high grass (“suzuki”) fills the framework, waving endlessly from one way to the other, as if gathering a broad symbolism: war, duality, but also carnal impulses.
The young woman runs through the field trying to satisfy her physical desires regardless of the atmospheric conditions and, towards the end of the film, of other threats. Such as Shindo, never embedding a moral pattern into the act of killing (its just a way of life), there are no feelings whatsoever between her and Hachi (it is just a way for both of them to get satisfaction). The daughter-in-law (Yoshimura Jitsuko) follows her instincts and runs towards Haichi (Sato Kei) through the suzuki fields.
Shindo Kaneto defined himself as a socialist and
the concept of class struggle is here, even though we follow mainly people at the bottom of the social pyramid (as much as such an expression makes sense in a ruined and torn apart society). The theme becomes more evident in those moments where the mother-in-law is speaking to the samurai hiding his face behind a mask, but it fills the whole work: the limit situation into which the peasants are placed has its origins in the conflict between the powerful ones. The historical period is also described by a rebellion of servants against their masters (seizing lands for instance) — an issue not directly approached but that Shindo most certainly took into consideration.
Being a work suggesting a political, sociological, historical and even psychological analysis, Onibaba is not restricted in its formal component.
The outstanding scope composition and the black and white photography, punctuated here and there by the lighting enhancing the bodies' pulse and anxieties, with the music and a dynamic sound design dominated by drums exacerbating primitive feelings, make the viewing a refined sensorial experience of great cinema. An harsh film, shot in a minimalist set — a river, high grass, shacks, a cavern —, in a cruel and violent world where the satisfaction of primitive instincts does not leave room for love, still includes an optimistic approach to the Human race's ability for survival.
asia.cinedie.com