I finished '
Snake Woman's Curse' this morning, a pretty good 1968 Japanese 'Kaidan' movie like the ones I discussed
here. In a rural part of Japan during the early 1900's where the economy and culture is still much more feudal than modern, a family is gradually destroyed by a brutal landlord. His cruelty is repaid with a bizarre curse where he becomes haunted by visions of ghosts and snakes. This movie looked great, and was nicely produced and imaginatively directed. It was made by the same guy who did the classic
Jigoku, and was well acted with a fairly good screenplay which made it easy to watch. As with many other Kaidan films of that era, it was more darkly lyrical than scary, and it had some gorgeous visuals to match the poetic style of the story. It had a few grotesque images but wasn't nearly as grisly as Jigoku which was made eight years prior. If I have any complaint at all, it would be that some of the characters are frustratingly passive in the face of the landlord's cruelty, but that was likely how everyone was conditioned to behave in that culture at that period, so I can't really hold it against the story. All told, this is a very worthwhile film for those interested in classic ghost fables or just some very nice cinematography.