The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch

After a long stay in a children's home, Sayuri Nanjo (Yachie Matsui) returns to her parents where she finds that she has an older sister Tamami (Mayumi Takahashi), who immediately treats her with disdain. Sharing a bed with Tamami, Sayuri finds reptile scales on the sheets, and comes to believe that her sister is a snake. Moved to the attic, Sayuri suffers from nightmares involving snakes, spiders and a hideous witch with detachable arms, and, thanks to a spy-hole above Tamami's room, discovers why her sister is so cruel to her. But who is the witch woman who clearly means to do Sayuri harm and why is she doing so?

While the ending does clear up the matter of the witch's true identity, I haven't the foggiest what her motives are, but that doesn't matter because the film is so atmospheric, downright freaky and full of crazy visuals that it proves entertaining regardless of the somewhat confusing plot. Matsui, as Sayuri, puts in a strong performance as the girl caught up in a strangely frightening situation, Takahashi is great as the mean sister whose face has a rather unusual sheen, and director Noriaki Yuasa keeps the pace brisk while providing plenty of kaleidoscopic psychedelia and surreality during Sayori's dream sequences, and a couple of surprisingly nasty moments: a nun stabbed in the chest and Sayuri having her hands mashed to a bloody pulp while hanging from some scaffolding. Fans of classic Japanese horror and Asian weirdness will find plenty to enjoy here.