Onibaba

Life's been tough, and you're surviving on the edge, trapping Samurai from flows in which you dredge, your often empty skillet, is sometimes, filled with millet, but at least your daughter in law helps you fetch. A neighbour returns home, with some bad news, your son, fallen in battle, no longer moves, it's not long before his wife, is causing stress, struggle and strife, behaving in a way you wholly disapprove. By fortune, you obtain a Hannya Mask, it comes in handy for a demonising task, a barrier of sorts, daughter in law's trips cut short, but there's no time to enjoy pleasures, or to bask.

Nobuko Otowa provides us with a truly outstanding performance as she grapples with her daughter in law's infidelity after the loss of her husband, leaving her isolated, alone and forgotten. The cinematography is sublime, the raw emotions unrefined, and the mask a cursed damnation that sticks and binds.