Onibaba

I'm planning on buying the Criterion edition of this film, but since it hasn't yet made it to the top of my wish list I'm watching it online at The Auteurs. A quick and painless sign-up lets me watch several films free and some others for a fee. Onibaba is a 1964 Japanese horror film based on a folk tale. It is directed by Kaneto Shindo. I plan on getting the DVD in time for the family to watch this next October.

The film cannot be embedded here, but it can be watched free at this link.

Moria has a review and gives it 4 stars. Variety praises the casting. DVDTalk reviews the Criterion release and says of the film,

The supernatural part of Onibaba is secondary to director Shindo's main theme - the human debasement of war. The two women make a ghoulish living in isolation, with survival their only remaining value. It's a harsh world where everyone must make do on their own.

The New York Times opens its review with this:

SELF-PRESERVATION and sex in a primitive society made desperate and bestial by war are the raw materials out of which Kaneto Shindo has conjured up "Onibaba" ("The Demon")