Tonight at a glance
- Runtime
- 105 min
- Age rating
- 15
- Language
- Japanese
- Country
- Japan
- Violence
- Moderate
- Frights
- Strong
Why tonight?
- Under two hours — there is still an evening on the other side of it.
- It goes hard on frights — not a wind-down.
- Reviewed better than most films in the catalogue.
The story
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
- japan
- samurai
- jealousy
- desertion
- hold-up robbery
- bamboo hut
- survival
- murder
- black and white
- demon
The look
A few frames, chosen rather than collected.
The bill
- Taiji Tonoyama — Ushi
- Someshō Matsumoto — Runaway Warrior
- Kentarô Kaji — Runaway Warrior
- Fudeko Tanaka — Old Woman
- Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi — Horse Riding Samurai
- Hiroshi Tanaka — Horse Riding Samurai
- Kanzō Uni — Horse Riding Samurai
- Hosui Araya — Ushi's Follower
- Michinori Yoshida — Samurai with Blood
- Nobuko Shimakage — Child
- Directed
- Kaneto Shindō
- Written
- Kaneto Shindō
Production
- Rating
- 7.7 / 10 · 487 ratings
- Studio
- Kindai Eiga Kyokai
If this stayed with you
Then these are the nearest things Cue holds — chosen for what they share with it, not for what happens to be popular.
