Post by morrisondylanfan on Oct 24, 2018 1:02:41 GMT
I finally got opportunity to watch The Hanuted Catsle (1969) that was recommended by both of you. I must say that it was a seriously impressive movie in that it combined samurai and horror genres with a great honesty. Okay, what actually appeals to me about Japanese period movies in the first place? It is the powerful characters they are able to build. Here also we see in the blind man a man with high moral values and honour. Sometimes, we can be dismissive of these qualities as being unattainable in real life but actually truth, honesty and honour are the kind of values that separate the good from the bad and have existed for real among humans from every era and every culture. The blind man was courageous in not giving away his sister to a man of low character (his Lord). The blind man was honest in saying to his master that he was cheating (Master, in aspiring to victory you have committed an unsuitable deed). So even if the blind man had just 15 minutes of screen time he was able to make us think and feel!
I gathered from another review that this movie may have been inspired from famous Russian horror VIY (1967) (which I highly recommend by the way). At least one common element between both movies would be that they are both derived from ancient folklore. I have seen plenty of horrors with cat woman but this was first one in which the cat's ghost possesses souls of its targets. Silly at first thought but if you see it as psychological representation then pretty impressive. Also, impressive were the seppuku scene and the descent into madness of the evil Lord. The one thing that I found both as a positive and negative for the movie was the percentage of movie that was shot at the night time. The night scenes were definitely creepy and added to the atmosphere the director was trying to build but they also interfered with some aspects regarding how the story was advanced. All in all, excellent movie and I thank you both for recommending it.
Funnily enough,with VIY,I've recently been thinking about taking a look at it,due to having read that it is based on the same novel as Mario Bava's Black Sunday and Djordje Kadijevic's A Holy Place (neither of which I've seen!) On the "night scenes" I do seriously suspect that budget reasons might be one of the main reasons why such a large part of the movie takes place at night.