#159 Black Cat (Kuroneko)

#159 Black Cat (Kuroneko)

From the Writer/Director of Onibaba (#60). That’s a domestic drama wrapped around a horror film. This is pure ghost story fairy tale. The super high contrast photography is amazing, and often poetic. The plot is quite simple, like a bedtime story. While it displays Shindō’s uniquely artistic approach to sexuality, the film never reaches the dramatic heights of Onibaba because the direction is more style than substance. Shindō would pick his moments in Onibaba, but this is packed with repeated images, unusual sounds and bizarre shots like ghosts somersaulting through the forest as a transition between scenes.