“Onibaba” (1964)

In the 1960s the Cold War and the ever present threat of nuclear annihilation produced a variety of international cinematic responses.  In Japan the atomic bomb was as much a historical reality as it was the planet’s worse case scenario.  “Onibaba”, on one level an allegory about survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, reflects this.

Set in the 14th century at a time of feudal warfare, civil disorder and famine, “Onibaba” is the story of two women, one in her early 20s, the other her mother-in-law,  who survive by trading the armour of fallen samurai for food.  Their relationship begins to disintegrate when news of the demise of their husband/son is brought by a deserting soldier who soon afterwards declares his attraction toward the younger female.

Frank and sensual in its depiction of carnal desire, raw and powerful in conveying the spurned older woman’s fear at being deserted, “Onibaba” draws much of it aesthetic and symbolic strength from a backdrop of wind swept swamp reeds.  If the mysterious appearance of a mask wearing stranger briefly threatens to turn things in the direction of a ghost story the revelation of the horrors beneath the disguise explicitly connects the drama to the social ostracism experienced by the scarred victims of nuclear fallout.