The Demon of Mount Oe

A band of warriors sets out for Mount Oe to rescue women who have been carried off. What waits for them on the mountain is not a demon alone; along the way they also meet a giant spider and a woman who works magic. The account rests on Japanese folk tales and makes no attempt to explain the supernatural; the warriors’ cunning serves them as much as their courage. The film uses the means of the studio cinema of its period: wide sets, crowded scenes and coloured costumes. The account does not present the demon as a flat piece of evil; the reason for the fear is as much a question as its source. Kazuo Hasegawa and Shintaro Katsu appear in Tokuzo Tanaka’s hundred and fourteen minute Japanese film, completed in 1960.