Rent Onibaba on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Kaneto Shindô
Directed by: Kaneto Shindô
Starring: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satô
Rated: NR [R]
Watch the trailer
Plot
Two women kill samurais and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.
Verdict
It's not a bad story, but it's stretched thin over the run time. You could probably whittle this down to a good forty minutes, but the premise is striking. Two women kill wayward samurai as a means to survive. They have no one upon which to depend during the war except for each other, but that changes when a man comes between them.
Skip it.
Review
The mother and daughter in law kill samurai who wander into the reeds where they live. It's that or die as selling the armor is their only source of income. Set in the fourteenth century, they have no other means of income since their son/husband was conscripted into the army.
Hachi returns, a neighbor who was conscripted with their son/husband. He reveals the son is dead. Part of this is about the consequences of war and the upheaval back home. I don't know if the mother and daughter are a metaphor, that in war you'll die no matter what, but it does speak to how desperate people can become.
The mother becomes jealous of Hachi's interest with her daughter in law. Maybe she fears losing her partner in crime and thus her only source of income, but it also seems competitive. There is simplicity to the story telling and presentation, but I can't help but with for a modern take.
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