A cruel landlord drives the elderly farmer Yasuke to his death. Afterwards, he takes Yasuke's wife and daughter on as house servants. The wife is mistreated, worked nearly to death and finally kicked into a heap of wood, resulting in a deadly wound to the head.
The daughter is mistreated, worked nearly to death, raped twice by the landlord's son and afterwards rejected by her fiancé with the nice question why she didn't kill her rapist (who is about twice her weight). Not surprisingly, her mother's ghost suggests suicide as the best way to have less trouble. The daughter agrees.
Afterwards, the family's ghosts drive the evil bastards to madness and death. Only the fiancé is allowed to live, probably out of a misguided sense of sentimentality.
Snake Woman's Curse is one of Japanese ghost story specialist Nobuo Nakagawa's lesser films. The melodrama might be effective (and oh, do we want the evil bastards to die), but is still too heavy for my tastes. It's like the emotional version of torture porn - after a while, you start to shrug and wish the film would get on with its business.
Visually there is little of Nakagawa's usual stylish use of colored lighting and shadow on display. It is competently made, but lacks personal flair.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment