My Week of Movie Watching

Kuroneko – Brilliant 1968 ghost story from Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba). A woman and her daughter-in-law are visited by a ragged bunch of wandering samurai who rob, rape and murder them. Later on, samurai suddenly start getting killed on an isolated forest road, and the man who is sent to investigate is a young samurai who also happens to be the son and husband of the women. This is a stylistic tour-de-force, as Shindo pulls out all the stops to create a nightmarish atmosphere; Lighting, costumes, music, and most importantly set design. The bamboo forest in this film brought to mind the brilliant sets that populated the great Kobayashi film Kwaidan. Highly recommended.

The Hands of Orloc – Silent film from 1924 concerns a famous pianist (Conrad Veidt) who loses his hands in an accident, and has the hands of a murderer attached. It doesn’t take long for the hands to start to take control of the pianist. This Robert Weine film has been on my want list for some time, and it was somewhat disappointing. The film comes to a more or less conventional conclusion, when I was wishing that it has stayed on its supernatural path. I also found it to be a bit slow-moving, as it doesn’t really create much drama around Orloc with his killers’ hands. A big plus is the restored musical track. It is gorgeous, yet edgy. Worth a look as a historical curiously, but overall, not a recommendation.