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Onibaba

Turkish title: Şeytan Kadın

“The most daring film import ever...From Japan!”

1964 · 1 h 43 min
Directed by Kaneto Shindo
DramaHorrorThriller

Cast

Nobuko Otowa Jitsuko Yoshimura

Credits

Written by: Hannya-bō

Plot

In fourteenth-century Japan, during a time of civil war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing lost samurai in a reed marsh and selling their armour. When a neighbour returns from the war and begins a relationship with the younger woman, the older one tries to stop it with a demon's mask. Kaneto Shindo's 1964 film is a stark, sensual horror tale, shot in black and white.

Sinekatalog’s take

Kaneto Shindo's Japanese horror has two women who murder soldiers for their armour, and a demon mask. Eerie, sweaty and sensual, filmed among swaying susuki grass, it is a taut folk tale.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 7.8 / 10 (26,306 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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