a review of 鬼婆

Hooptober Night Twenty-eight: I was struck by the structural similarities between this movie and another Shindo film I watched earlier this year, Kuroneko, in terms of having the same mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship between the protagonists, as well as the suggestion of some level of psychosexual competition existing between them with the intrusion of the neighbor. In some ways I feel like this movie is perhaps the rough draft for what Shindo would do with Kuroneko a few years later, not just in terms of the ideas but also in refining his visuals and rhythm to tell the same kind of dark folktale but with just a little extra polish. This movie was an incredible experience, but I felt like Kuroneko was just that little bit more.