Just perfect...

How sad is this?

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The basic premise of this film is simple: two peasant women are brutally set upon by a band of low-grade samurai who rape them and burn down their house, killing them. After this horrible crime spree, the women's spirits return and they use their feminine wiles to trick and murder as many samurai as they can get their clutches on. This samurai killing machine works flawlessly until the son and husband of the two vengeful spirits shows up after a long absence. The son/husband is, himself, a samurai. Obviously, this career choice puts the two women in quite an uncomfortable bind. Do they choose love, or vengeance?"Kuroneko" is a workmanlike entry in the long tradition of samurai ghost story films. Attractively filmed with spirits flying everywhere in a manner that prefigures "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," it isn't boring to watch. However, "Kuroneko" definitely lacks the secret sauce that separates a decent movie from a great one. What's lacking? I think the acting isn't so great, and the story and direction aren't top drawer either. It just didn't live up to the hype for this viewer.If you watch "Ugetsu Monogatari" by Kenji Mizoguchi, you will see a much higher order of filmmaking devoted to a similar subject. The maker of "Kuroneko," Kaneto Shindo, worked extensively with Mizoguchi, but he does not seem to have absorbed the master's talent sufficiently to bring "Kuroneko" up to the level of "Ugetsu." Even Shindo's own "Onibaba" (from just a few years earlier) is a much better movie than "Kuroneko," in my opinion.In summary, "Kuroneko" is diverting, but it is not a masterpiece of postwar Japanese cinema. Manage your expectations carefully, and you can enjoy its charms without suffering too much disappointment. However, if you are a cat lover, the prominence given to felines in this movie may help to make up for its other shortcomings.

KURONEKO / A BLACK CAT IN A BAMBOO GROVE (YABU NO NAKA NO KURONEKO). Viewed on Streaming. Restoration/preservation = ten (10) stars; cinematography = eight (8) stars; costume design = seven (7) stars; stunts = six (6) stars; set design = five (5) stars; special effects = four (4) stars. Director Kaneto Shindo (who is also credited as the writer) presents his take on an ancient supernatural folktale (circa post Heian) involving the rape and murder of two rural women (a wife and her mother in-law) by wandering samurai with the former promoted to ghost status to kill wandering (and any other) samurai. Their pet black cat is nebulously mixed up in this process. The plot thickens when the husband/son returns as a freshly minted samurai who begins wandering about searching for his missing relatives--and, of course, eventually finds their unreasonable facsimiles. Shindo's photo-play does not telegraph (in advance) how plot points will turn out (unusual for filmed folklore), but the ending is not a happy one (which is the usual result for movies of this genre). The Director's product might have made an excellent short. Instead the film is overly long by a factor of at least three, and stretch marks and fillers can be seen just about everywhere: endless repetition of scenes; performances reduced to "ghostly" slow-motion acting; loads of horse-back riding to nowhere; etc. Shindo seems unsure if he is making a motion picture or filming a stage play complete with spot-lite actresses. As with most/all ghost tales invented by Buddhist monks way back when, this one smacks of sexism and the "inherent evil" of women. (Apparently, deceitful, vengeful, dangerous, and murderous male ghosts were in short supply during ancient times!) Restoration and cinematography (2.35 : 1, black and white) are excellent. There are many fine tracking shots. Costumes are minimal quantitatively but outstanding qualitatively. Set design is pretty good especially sound-stage "exteriors." Ghost effects are fairly primitive (even by contemporary standards) and uneven; they mainly derive from in-camera, film processing, and editing techniques (multiple exposures often look phony, but the invisible foot cart that seems to have been used to enable actresses to travel unaided in front of trotting horses is a fine touch). Stunt actors provide eye-opening flips and pirouettes. Subtitles are close enough and signs usually translated. Always keep a caffeinated beverage nearby with this one! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Early on in this movie there are three scenes that go like this:First: A samurai meets a pale woman in a white kimono. The woman leads him home. There is a domestic scene, he is lured into making love to her and meets a grisly end.Second: A samurai meets a pale woman in a white kimono. The woman leads him home. There is a domestic scene, he is lured into making love to her and meets a grisly end. (Okay, we get it.)Third: A samurai meets a pale woman in (Okay, we get it!)On repeated viewings, the above sequences gets a little tedious, even though in the domestic scenes there is information revealed that is vital to the movie. Here's the good news: that is my only beef with Kuroneko.Kuroneko is otherwise a very good, atmospheric Japanese ghost story with a revenge angle to it. It's a very visual movie. Lovely sets, good camera work, good direction, good acting. The first time through the repetitive bits I griped about don't detract much but do keep me from giving this a slightly higher rating.Check it out.

A host of depraved and food-deprived ronin pillage the food and rape a woman and her daughter-in-law, Yone(Nobuko Otowa)and Shige(Kiwako Taichi), setting their hut on fire as they lie unconscious..soon their bodies lie badly scorched, a black cat(..a recent pet found roaming their premises)licks from their bleeding wounds. During this opening sequence, director Kaneto Shindô effectively uses silence, crickets, creek water sloshing in the mouths of the heathen Samurai, and no dialogue. It's simply an atrocious act set amongst an uncivilized time where war is ravaging the land, but Shindô presents it quietly, two bodies lain in the middle of the rubble of what was once their homestead.Making a deal with an evil god from the netherworld, seeking revenge, Yone and Shige are allowed to return from the dead in human form from dusk till dawn, to rip apart the throats of Samurai, feeding from their blood, behavior and abilities akin to a feline, the black cat. It's simple at first, Shige uses her beauty to lure Samurai, now in fine garments(..still loathsome on the inside, which emerges after much Sake)to a fictitious home which exists only for the hours the ghosts roam, where they get them drunk and feed from their blood. Soon the repeated attacks, where fallen men lay dead with bleeding throats, causes the area's Samurai leader, Raiko(Kei Sato)to seek a warrior to end the threat. A warrior soon arises, Gintoki(Kichiemon Nakamura), the lone survivor in a slaughter between two companies in Ezo, Northern Japan between Samurai and barbarians, who is called on to kill the "monsters". The conflict that results is that the ghosts are Gintoki's mother and wife! And, even worse, Gintoki must kill them or die at Raiko's sword.Kaneto Shindô depends on several visual techniques in shaping his ghost tale of revenge mainly through the use of fog and repeated images of Yone in flight and on the attack. The powerhouse story is what ultimately works the best in Shindô's movie, I think, because Gintoki is caught in quite a conundrum he can not seem to escape. His quandary is that he's indebted to his leader, Raiko, to rid their land, mainly the Rajomon Gate, of the predators devouring the Samurai, yet the difficulty of attacking your own mother becomes quite a problem that's not easy to resolve. Making matters worse is that Yone can not tell her son the reason why she and Shige commit their fiendish attacks. The film didn't quite end the way I expected, and I ponder it's meaning. Why would Gintoki fall for such an obvious trick regarding the guarding of a decapitated arm in his protection from Yone? Quite a tragic story, very emotional, specifically what Shige accepts in order to enjoy days of love with Gintoki, and how Yone must resort to trickery to gain an advantage over her beloved son. Quite an eerie score, spooky uses of a forest at night, and the throat attacks are quite ferocious. Minor masterpiece from the director. A haunting finale as Gintoki aimlessly pursues his mother, going mad, with winter snow used quite strikingly. Potential following I presume in the future as horror fans become more aware of it's existence.