Onibaba

During the civil wars of fourteenth century Japan, a woman and her daughter in law live in the reeds. They survive by killing lost soldiers and selling their armour. When a neighbour back from the fighting approaches the younger woman, the older one starts using a mask to separate them. The film draws its horror not from the supernatural but from dependence: she cannot live without her daughter in law and she knows it. Kaneto Shindo wrote and directed. It was shot almost entirely inside reeds two metres high, with the sound of the wind used as its score. A real warning: it contains explicit sexuality and images of corpses, and the final section involving the mask is disturbing. It caused argument at the time as well.