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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Instinct Woman

posted by on May 22 at 15:46 PM

In 1964 Kaneto Shindo directs Onibaba:
ONIBABA_lg.jpg We must never forget this film. It is one of the ten defining works of silver-age Japanese cinema. Two women live in a grass swamp and survive by luring and killing samurai going to or coming from an everlasting war. The women and her daughter-in-law kill and rob men. The bodies of the men are then dumped into a deep hole. The raw power of this film is generated by this dynamic: life devours death. The women are life; the men are death. And the more death life devours, the less death there is in the world; and the more life devours death, the more life there is in the world. The women are the point at which death comes to an end and life thrives; the men are nothing but a cycle of death that has no end. To live is to live on nothing.


RSS icon Comments

1

This film always reminds me of "Women in the Dunes," both are favorites of mine.

Posted by Jared | May 22, 2008 4:17 PM
2

Why should we take your critical opinion seriously when you've shown yourself absent the process of critical thinking.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | May 22, 2008 4:20 PM
3

I long for people...
then again I loathe them:
end of autumn. -Chogo

Posted by Special K | May 22, 2008 4:36 PM
4

Onibaba means evil old lady. Oni means demon and baba is a not very nice word for an old woman.

Posted by japanesejill | May 22, 2008 4:50 PM
5

It looks like the adult version of the girl who was run over.

Posted by TheTruthHurts | May 22, 2008 5:11 PM
6

Parodying yourself is usually a sign you need a vacation. Take some time off, man.

Posted by Bob | May 22, 2008 5:26 PM
7

It's the archetypal story that feeds irrational masculine fear of woman -- the fear of the earth devouring him. Which is a justifiable fear; the mistake is thinking woman is of the earth and man is not.

(White) man is NOT formed in the image of God; Woman (black man) is NOT Freud's "dark continent". We know ourselves; we are knowable. (White) man may be born of us, but he is still in us, and we are in him. We are not so different.

We need some new myths. Those old ones are so tired.

Posted by Irena | May 22, 2008 6:40 PM
8

Also.....boobies!

Posted by Becky | May 22, 2008 7:22 PM
9

Please, Chuck, remember this film for me. I already forgot.

Posted by Spoogie | May 22, 2008 7:56 PM
10

charles, why is it irena's analysis makes more sense than yours? she's just an unpaid commenter, and you're an employee of the stranger. life just isn't fair, i guess.

Posted by ellarosa | May 22, 2008 8:01 PM
11

Onibaba don't mean hole.

Posted by Colin | May 22, 2008 10:27 PM

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