Director Tanaka Tokuzô’s The Demon of Mount Oe, one of three kaidan films included on Radiance’s Daiei Gothic Vol 2: Japanese Ghost Stories set, is based on a story that originates in the 14th century, though it’s been updated for modern times, reflecting the spirit of social and political change that swept through Japan in the 1960s.
When the film was released in 1960, the ultimately unsuccessful Anpo protests were in full swing across Japan, with one-third of the nation’s people taking to the streets in efforts to prevent the signing of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. These were cynical times, as evidenced by angry and aggressive films by the young guns over at Shochiku who kicked off the Japanese New Wave. Unlike his contemporaries, Tanaka was tasked with coloring within the lines, but The Demon of Mount Oe is progressive in its non-traditional representation of female martyrs, as well as its titular demon.
The film is playful in its integration of kaidan genre tropes—epic samurai battles, giant floating oxen, a huge spider monster, and glowing, magical swords—into a narrative that hews closer to the traditions of the jidaigeki, or period drama. Where the demon at its center, Shuten-dôji, is typically presented as a force of pure evil—an impulsive, drunken being who terrorizes the city of Kyoto and kidnaps women—The Demon of Mount Oe humanizes him. Not only is Shuten-dôji (Hasegawa Kazuo) shown here primarily in human form and in a somewhat sympathetic and more ambiguous light, he’s also explicitly depicted as trying to overthrow a corrupt government that’s more violent and oppressive than any other demon we see on screen.
Based on a story that dates as far back as the 16th century, Tanaka’s The Haunted Castle, from 1969, is a more straightforward revenge tale. A bakeneko, or ghost cat, inhabited by the young Sayo (Kamei Mitsuyo) after she and her blind brother (Toda Akihisa) were murdered by a power-hungry lord (Kôjirô Hongô) and his right-hand man (Rokkô Toura), gets vengeance upon her killers and their clan by taking the form of women living in the titular castle.
Tanaka’s adaptation is hauntingly atmospheric, with the castle functioning as a disorienting, inescapable labyrinth of darkened corridors and spectral pools of light. The elegant use of negative space and frequent play of shadows are heightened by exacting, gliding camerawork and Watanabe Chumei’s minimalist score as the bakeneko inhabits one woman after another, violently dispatching the men who wronged her and anyone in her way.
Released in 1970, the final film in the set, Yasuda Kimiyoshi’s Ghost of Kasane Swamp, exhibits many of the changing tendencies in Japanese cinema at the start of this new decade. Yasuda not only employs a good deal of handheld camerawork and a liberal use of zooms, but the violence is bloodier and there are nearly as many sex scenes as you’d find in a typical ’70s pink film.
The tale it’s based on has been around for centuries, and even Yasuda already adapted it 10 years earlier with Ghost Story: Depth of Kasane. With this second adaptation, he transforms what is otherwise a simple story about a wife avenging her death, after being murdered by her husband, into a twisty, lurid tale of those worst of human impulses spreading throughout a town, and down to the next generation, like a disease. The cynicism of the first two films in this set don’t hold a candle to that of Ghost of Kasane Swamp, which is steeped in the nihilism that tightened its grip on Japan throughout the 1960s and which locates its horror less in its titular ghost than in humanity’s shocking capacity for duplicity and violence.
Image/Sound
The transfers, from new 4K restorations, boast strong image detail and clarity, while the color balancing brings a vibrancy to the bloodletting and the colors in the intricate costuming. Black levels are impressive, especially in The Haunted Castle, which makes ample use of shadows and dark negative space in the frame. The 24-bit mono audio tracks are crisp, with no signs of hisses or pops, and the moody scores and sound effects have a strong resonance.
Extras
In a new interview included on the disc for The Demon of Mount Oe, period film historian Taichi Kasuga talks specifically about how Tanaka Tokuzô’s film drew from the traditions of the chanbara, a sub-genre of jidaigeki, and how screenwriter Yahiro Fuji updated the story for modern times. Film critic Tom Mes also provides a brief video essay that delves into the legend and real history of the glowing sword in The Demon of Mount Oe.
On the disc for The Haunted Castle, Mes touches on Ikuko Mori’s experiences with the yakuza and how the actress, who appeared in plenty of Daiei horror films, earned the nickname the “snake actress.” In a new interview, J-horror filmmaker Mari Asato focuses on the history of the bakeneko in Japanese cinema and how its depiction has changed over the course of history.
The highlight of the final disc is a select-scene audio commentary by horror film scholar Lindsay Nelson, who breaks down the visual style and themes of The Ghost of Kasane Swamp, as well as the history of the story it’s based on. There’s also an interview with J-horror filmmaker Norio Tsuruta, who discusses what makes this adaptation unique, and a visual essay by Zack Davisson about the evolution of the tale from its oral traditions through theater and film.
Rounding out the beautifully packaged box is an 80-page bound booklet with the original ghost stories The Goblin of Oeyama and The Vampire Cat and illuminating essays by by Mes, writer and filmmaker Jasper Sharp, and film critic Amber T.
Overall
Radiance has once again blessed our spooky season with a wonderful trio of underseen Japanese horror gems, complete with a gorgeous booklet and an informative slate of extra features.
Score:
Cast: Hasegawa Kazuo, Ichikawa Raizô, Katsu Shintarô, Hongô Kôjirô, Kobayashi Naomi, Kamei Mitsuyo, Rokkô Toura, Ishiyama Teruo, Kitajima Maya, Kasahara Reiko, Mizukami Ryuko Director: Tanaka Tokuzô, Yasuda Kimiyoshi Screenwriter: Yahiro Fuji, Asai Shozaburo Distributor: Radiance Films Running Time: 278 min Rating: NR Year: 1960 – 1970 Release Date: October 14, 2025 Buy: Video
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