Rating: 4.5/5
Hooptober 8.0 | 1/34 | Countries 1/6 | Japan
A group of samurai come out of the woods to a house. Inside lives a mother and daughter, who are alone after the daughter’s husband went missing.
The men force them against the floor, eating their food and SAing them. When done, they set the house on fire.
When the fire settles, the women lay there, covered in burns. A black cat walks over their bodies. The cat licks at their cheeks and meows.
A samurai rides his horse, guarding Rajomon Gate. A spectral figure leaps over the top of his head. He doesn’t notice. A woman approaches all in white.
She asks him to walk her across the grove safely. She draws him into the bamboo forest, leaping over pools of water. The cat continues to mew.
Her house seems to exist both within the forest and separate from it, as though an invisible veil separates them. Her mother glides in carrying food. Her hair wags like a cat’s tail.
The man, drunk on sake, kisses the daughter. Meanwhile, the mother performs a ritual. The daughter moves to his neck and tears at it, blood pouring.
Samurais continue to guard the gate as the duo lures them to the home, seduce, and kill them. They have made a pact to drain the life of all samurai.
They are not prepared for when their daughter’s husband comes back, now a samurai.
The pacing is deliberate — not slow, but letting each piece of the story unfold and settle.
Incredible lighting creates immense depth of space and odd geographies.
The sun appears like a painted backdrop, obliterating everything else.
The film calls into question the duplicity of samurai, who appear as symbols of courage while exploiting the peasants around them. How they “enhanced” stories to make them more pleasing to audiences.
The plot relies on the guy being exceptionally naive. A couple of times, it was annoying, but nothing horrendous.
This film is an engaging J-Horror classic with dread for days