(1960)
Dir - Tokuzô Tanaka
Overall: GOOD
One of the first films to be directed by Tokuzô Tanaka, The Demon of Mount Oe, (Ōeyama Shuten Dōji, Shuten Doji of Mount Oe), leans on the epic side as far as samurai movies go. At nearly two hours in length, it deals with rival clans and warriors, brutalized women, and the supernatural entities working both with and against them. A minor plot line here was borrowed eight years later in Kaneto Shindo's outstanding Kuroneko where a severed hand from a onryō spirit, (or a demon in this case), is meant to be guarded over as to lose its power, only to be obtained via trickery from said spirit. Elsewhere, there are various sword fights, some big dopey monsters, and a prominent theme of women in feudal Japan being "tossed around like dolls without a soul" as one particularly poor lady proclaims. While the men prattle on about honor, dignity, and restoring peace, (or just wiping out their enemies so that they can live in luxury), the comparatively small number of females are treated as property and either successfully attempt or threaten to attempt suicide. This makes one of the clan leaders being the aforementioned shapeshifting female demon interesting as she is the only one to possess any physical or diabolical power. Though the movie feels its length at times, it is an impressive production with some wacky elements, costumes, and plenty of violence.
(1968)
Dir - Tokuzô Tanaka
Overall: GOOD
Another adaptation of the Japanese Yuki-onna yōkai legend, (which was also utilized as one of the segment's in Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan four years earlier), The Snow Woman, (Kaidan yukijorô), was prolific director Tokuzô Tanaka's more fleshed-out take on the folklore source material. The design of the title spirit and all of her appearances are striking, as she is both beautiful and terrifying in frosted white with gold eyes, ethereally gliding instead of walking. The music blares along with howling winds while the terrain becomes unworldly frostbitten during the small instances where her true form is revealed to the doomed individuals who gaze upon it. Details are added to the narrative, namely a villainous bailiff who goes to great lengths to have the humble sculptor apprentice's wife to himself. This does everything to make the inevitably bleak finale more tragic after having witnesses such happiness become ultimately unsustainable. Tanaka spent the later half of his career primarily working in television by making jidaigeki dramas, with few other horror entries in his catalog. Yet his work here is commendable and serves as an essential counterpart to the aforementioned anthology classic Kwaidan.
(1969)
Dir - Tokuzô Tanaka
Overall: GOOD
Director Tokuzô Tanaka had his busiest decade during the 1960s, averaging four or more films a year. The Haunted Castle, (Hiroku kaibyô-den, Secret Chronicle of the Ghost Cat), is typical of its sub-genre, one of many demonic ghost cat vengeance films set in Japan's post-feudal Edo period that was produced at the time. High on atmosphere, low on story, and with a minimal amount of bright-red blood splatter for good measure, the plot ends once the first act is out of the way and a woman from a shamed family curses those who have wronged them by way of unholy feline retribution. Cinematographer Hiroshi Imai, (who also shot Tanaka's two other seminal horror films The Demon of Mount Oe and The Snow Woman), keeps the lights off for the majority of the proceedings, allowing for the stark sound design to take over, which occasionally erupts in a flurry of distorted cat noises, moans, and howling winds. The structure wears thin once we get to our third night of such supernatural antics where the madam of the house is clearly possessed, starts craving fish, and turning her monstrous appearance on and off, but the emphasis on creepy atmosphere consistently suits the simple material.
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