Ghost Story of Yotsuya
(Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan, 1959)

Nakagawa Nobuo

Japan

76 min, color, Japanese (English subtitles)

Review © 2006 Branislav L. Slantchev

Based on Tsuruya Nanboku's kabuki play by the same name, Nakagawa's adaptation of the famous ghost story is widely considered the best of the bunch. Although I prefer the more stylized approach to horror such as Kobayashi's or even Ishikawa's (who many consider a lot less impressive), I have to say that this film is very effective in what it sets out to achieve.

Conspirators show at the mourning of their victim	The distraught sisters bent on vengeance

Despite one violent scene in the very beginning, the first half of the film is a melancholy story that reminds me of Ugetsu in the sense that it is about a manipulative self-obsessed man who fails to appreciate the sacrifice, tenderness, and infinite patience of his wife. But where Mizoguchi reached for redemption through the man's own realization of his sins, Nakagawa's nihilist approach recognizes no second chances. In the very last scene where the protagonist, now reduced to a crawling mess by the consequences of his own deeds, shouts out begging forgiveness, the only possible response is death. There will be no return to the family hearth because it has been defiled by his egotism, cowardice, and moral failure.

Long is the road to perdition	A poor semblance of family life

The story itself is simple enough. A down and out samurai by the name of Iemon (Amachi Shigeru) is suing for the hand of Samon Iwa (Wakasugi Kazuko) in marriage. However, her father is well aware of Iemon's dissolute ways and bluntly refuses, which causes the young man to fly into a rage and murder the obstacle to his plans. The lowly servant Naosuke (Emi Shuntaro) helps Iemon by spreading the rumor that some infamous brigand was responsible for the vile murder. Both perpetrators show up during the mourning period to weasel their way into the graces of the two Samon sisters, the younger one of whom is Sode (Kitazawa Noriko) who is obviously in love with Yomoshichi (Nakamura Ryozaburo), another samurai whose father was killed under mysterious circumstances (we later find out that it was also Iemon's doing).

Ume, Iemon's next target	The mutually unhappy Iemon and Iwa

Iemon and Naosuke pledge to help the sisters avenge their father's death and roam the country in pursuit of the villain without ever seeming to find him (no surprise there). However, the lecherous Naosuke has set his sights on Sode and the honorable Yomoshichi is standing in his way. It is not long before he forces Iemon to help him murder the unsuspecting samurai whom they push off a cliff down into a waterfall. In the confusion, Iemon and Iwa get separated from Naosuke and Sode. Some years later, the first couple is living in Edo and has a small son. But despite his pretensions, Iemon is unable to provide for his family. In a clearly disgraceful turn for a samurai, he's reduced to making umbrellas but the income is barely enough and he has to pawn anything of value that he can find in their house.

Too cowardly to confront his wife with dignity	It was a bad joke

At the same time, Naosuke has convinced Sode that he will continue looking for her father's murderer, hoping to get her in bed. However, she refuses to have anything to do with him until her vengeance is complete. Naosuke, too, is chafing in poverty and he conspires with Iemon to plan another series of despicable acts that looks quite promising. They will use the wealthy Ito family, whose daughter Ume (Ikeuchi Junko) Iemon saved from some ruffians. The small problem that they have to deal with is Iwa—it's just won't look very good if Iemon got hitched with Ume while still married to another woman.

Iwa's hair comes off as she brushes it	Confronting her husband's patsy

Correspondingly, the evil duo hatches a Shakespearean plot to get rid of that obstacle. In a twist reminiscent of the comedic Divorce Italian Style, Iemon wants to set up his own wife with a man who will hopefully seduce her and then use that as an excuse to kill her. But it's not funny here, and the coward that he is, Iemon cannot even bring himself to confront her honorably. Instead, he decides to listen to Naosuke and poison his wife. The scene after he has clearly made up his mind and she cannot help but suspect that something is amiss is heart-rending. Iemon is lying on his side facing away from his son and wife while Iwa is fanning them both to keep them cool. She is sick and fading fast, but seeking some reassurance she asks him if he would marry again after she dies. With a cruelty only made more hurtful by his dispassionate delivery, Iemon says that he would, and soon too.

I can't leave my son with that monster	Iwa's body nailed to a shutter

As the impending wedding with Ume forces a resolution, Iemon convinces the masseur Takuetsu (Otomo Jun) to seduce his wife. At this point it is not entirely clear to me why Takuetsu would agree to such a dangerous undertaking: he may be in love with Iwa but he knows full well what can happen to a commoner if he is caught frolicking with a samurai's wife. Iemon's plan is also a bit murky: if he plans to catch his wife with the masseur in flagrante delicto, then is he still planning to kill her on the spot? If so, then why poison her? If he's hoping that the poison will kill her, then why the elaborate staging of adultery? At any rate, he gives his wife the poison and then leaves her alone with Takuetsu who quickly attempts to turn the entirely respectable service into the type that would get any massage parlor shut down pronto by the authorities.

Iemon about to experience supernal wrath	Iwa's ghost in the bloody pond

Iwa rebuffs him and threatens to denounce him, which causes the frightened Takeutsu to spill the beans. And it is at this moment that the poison kicks in. In a particularly disturbing and creepy scene, Iwa, half of whose face is already horribly disfigured, brushes her hair only to pull patches of it with her comb, and as the hair comes off her head, it reveals bloody scabs underneath. The sequence is so effective that my wife refused to continue watching the film after that. As the poison takes effect, Iwa realizes that she will die, and so she commits suicide with a razor but not before killing her son whom she is unwilling to leave with that monster of a husband. As the scene fades, she wails holding the child and her plaintive cry of agony at Iemon's inexplicable betrayal is mixed with the dreadful promise that she will make sure he pays for his crimes.

The sword cannot help against this opponent	Naosuke confesses all his crimes

The second part of the film is taken with her revenge upon Iemon and Naosuke. As befits any self-aware Japanese ghost story, the emphasis is on the psychological terrorizing of the intended victim rather than an overt visuals effects. The film does not intent to scare the audience (although it does achieve that too) but drag us into the nightmarish world into which Iemon soon descends. He sees visions of his murdered wife everywhere, and she torments him by asking why he did it. Her apparition blinds Iemon to the reality around and causes him to slaughter Ume, her father, and her maid before running off to a Buddhist temple where the monks' chanting seems to protect him from her spell. But nothing can help Iemon when Iwa gets her sister into a trance and leads her to Yomoshichi who turns out to have survived the fall. The two flesh-and-blood people can finish the job even on the holy ground of the temple.

In trance, Sode follows her sister's ghost	Gratuitous shot of Kitazawa Noriko

It is not difficult to see why this film is so highly regarded. While the performances are strong all around, Amachi's Iemon stands out for his deadpan evil although it is not a straightforward villain like Naosuke. The Bushido spirit seems to have survived somewhere deep within the samurai and although it does not stop him from petty pursuits of money in quite despicable ways, at least it enables him to see his failure and in the end reach genuine contrition, something that cannot be said of the sniveling Naosuke who dies without any glimmer of salvation. The human impact of the story is enhanced by the gorgeous visuals set in immaculately designed sets against painted backdrops. Some of the scenes (e.g., the ones in the temple following Naosuke's death) are almost expressionist in their use of inanimate objects to suggest inner drama. The music is also unsettling, with the flute wailing like a sick child. Damn good stuff.

The ghosts of wife and son have come to seek justice	Deliverance for Iemon

The DVD I saw was the Greek release by New Star in their Japanese Horror Classics series. It must be the same quality as the Japanese R2 disc and at about 60% of the cost, it's definitely the way to go. The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen at the OAR 2.35:1. The sole soundtrack is the original Japanese monoaural. The optional English subtitles are removable and free of errors (even though Stuart Galbraith claims in his Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films that the sisters' names have been mistranslated). The extras include trailers for all the other films in the series and some brief information about the film in Greek. This is certainly one of the better kaidan films and this release should make fans of those who see it.

March 5, 2006