Devil Woman's Birthday
On November 21, 1964, in Japan the film "Onibaba 鬼婆 (Demon Woman)" by Kaneto Shindo was released.
The literal translation of the original Japanese name for this film would have looked like "Hag". But, apparently, such a name seemed to the distributors in the USA, in the first country, where after the demonstration of this film in Japan, in February 1965 took place, quite soft. And on this reason the film was given the rolling name "Devil Woman". Which reached the Russian-speaking cinema viewers already in the version of "The Demon Woman".
The film is based on a Buddhist parable about a mask that scares brides which is aimed to encourage the participation of women in religious ceremonies.
The film did not participate in competitive screenings at international film festivals anywhere other than Japan. And in the UK, initially the film was generally refused a rental certificate. True, three years later such a certificate was issued, but with very large restrictions.
Western film critics who disagreed about the genre affiliation (the genre of the film was defined as “horror”, “erotic noir”, “socio-historical drama”, “psychological thriller”, etc.) gave very ambiguous reviews about the movie.
For example, Peter Bradshaw from the British The Guardian wrote: «Onibaba is a chilling movie, a waking nightmare shot in icy monochrome, and filmed in a colossal and eerily beautiful wilderness: a Japanese susuki field, or pampas-grass field".
According to Abe Weiler, American film critic of Russian descent from The New York Times, "SELF-PRESERVATION and sex in a primitive society made desperate and bestial by war are the raw materials out of which Kaneto Shindo has conjured up "Onibaba" ("The Demon") - Onibaba' at Toho by A.H. WEILER. - The New York Times, Feb.10, 1965
R. R. Bowker of Variety described the film as «sometimes high adventure and exciting, at other times dull in its so-called symbolism. Too often, this turns out to be a potpourri of ravenous eating and blatant sex.». - Variety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. 11.
Perhaps, but we do not affirm this, but only assume that such a biased attitude of American and British film critics to the film by Kaneto Shindo is to some extent due to the fact that Kaneto Shindo himself, a native of Hiroshima, noted, among other things, that, the effects of the mask on those who wear it are symbolic of the disfigurement of the victims of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film reflecting the traumatic effect of this visitation on post-war Japanese society.
This is also indicated by the Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefyodov in his review of the film: “A native of Hiroshima, Shindo makes every frame feel the unremitting pain for his native people, for specific people polled (as much later, in the middle of the 20th century) by imperial militarism to truly demonic state".
Despite the fact that the work of Kaneto Shindo was highly appreciated in the Soviet Union, especially after his victory with the film “Naked Island” at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1960, the film “The Demon Woman” was not shown in the USSR. The reason, apparently, is the very strong sexual component of the film and the abundance of naked torsos, both male and female.
As stated above, the film did not receive any recognition at international film festivals. However, high viewer ratings - 69% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users around the world gave the film ratings of 8 or higher - turned out to be enough to be included in the Golden Thousand with the Rank 789 and a rating of 7.95.
