The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost is a 1961 horror/drama from writer/director Tai Kato (The Blossom and The Sword, Genghis Khan and his Mongols and Fighting Tatsu, The Rickshaw Man, he was also second unit director on Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Rashomon, so he has pedigree). The film stars Tomisaburô Wakayama (Lonewolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance, Lonewolf and Cub: Babycart in the Land of Demons and Black Rain), Ayuko Fujishiro (Crazed Fruit, I Am Waiting and Frankie no uchûjin), Jûshirô Konoe (Street of Ronin, Ronin of Ako and Blind Swordswoman: Hellish Skin) and Ushio Akashi (Prince of Space, Shonen tanteidan: Tomei kaijin, and Ultraman Leo).

Based on the classic Japanese ghost story, Yotsuya Kaidan, The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost tells the story of Tamiya Iemon (Wakayama), a samurai whose life hasn’t exactly gone to plan. His wife, Oiwa (Fujishiro) has left him and gone back to live with her parents after he commits murder. Hurt by his wife’s desertion of him, he and his conniving friend, Naosuke (Konoe) attempt to find a way to get her back. Their plan works, and after secretly murdering Oiwa’s father, they swear vengeance on whoever has committed such an atrocity, knowing full well that it was them. During the skirmish, Naosuke also believes he has killed Yomoshichi, the lover of Oiwa’s sister, Osode and the pair end up marrying. Soon after, a woman named Oume, moves into the same neighbourhood as Tamiya and Oiwa. Tamiya falls in love with this woman and subsequently poisons his wife with a disfiguring potion that leaves her horribly mutilated. Upon discovering her husband’s betrayal and seeing her mutilated face, Oiwa becomes distraught, cursing her husband with her dying breath. I’ve stopped my description at this point so as not to give too much away about the plot; however, it all kicks off at this point. 

I would hope that many of you, who don’t know this film, will give it a chance as it’s one of the finest screen adaptations of this classic Japanese ghost story. Released, just a few short months after  Nobuo Nakagawa's well-loved 1959 version Ghost of Yotsuya, this feels less like a play adapted to screen and wholly more cinematic. The cast are excellent across the board, and the lead characters in particular give solid and realistic performances, particularly Wakayama and Fujishiro. The cinematography is glorious, and Kato’s direction makes for a beautiful masterpiece of dark cinema. His work with Kurosawa is obviously a stylistic influence on how the movie looks, which is never a bad thing. I am of the opinion that The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost should be talked about in the same reverential tones as classics like Onibaba and Kwaidan.

The new Blu-ray from Radiance Films features an excellent HD print of the movie, as well as a video essay by Lindsay Nelson on tortured female ghosts in Japanese horror and an interview with director Mari Asato, who is most famous for Ju-On: Black Ghost, a film with its roots in the same classic tale. 

Overall, this is a wonderful release of a massively underappreciated masterpiece of Japanese cinema. Beautiful, scary, well-scripted and packing a punch, The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost is a tour de force of Japanese cinema that deserves to be seen by more people. Radiance has done an excellent job on this new Blu-ray release, which comes with reversible artwork and a limited edition booklet with a new essay from Tom Mes. It may be lacking a little in bonus materials, but the film itself more than makes up for it. Highly recommended.