Entering an exchange project on ICM,my first viewing was the distinctive rustic Comedy Ko to tamo peva. Getting introduced to Asia Cinema via the 2016 IMDb Film Festival board (RIP),I was thrilled to see that other title in the exchange program be an Asia title I've not heard of before!,which led to me unmasking the demons.
The plot:
Exiled out of his samurai clan, Gengobe starts a passionate love affair with geisha Komon. Given the opportunity to re-join his group, Gengobe receives a reinstatement payment. Being the first payment he has received since the exile,Gengobe is horrified to find that someone has stolen his cash,which leads to Gengobe unleashing his avenging demons.
View on the film:
Towering above everyone, Katsuo Nakamura gives an extraordinary expressive performance as Gengobe,with Nakamura's high standing and curled arms giving Gengobe a demonic appearance. Set against a stripped backdrop, Nakamura digs into the lack of Gengobe's remorse with a burning fury being cast across his face. Enticing Gengobe, Yasuko Sanjo gives an emotionally raw performance as Komon,whose darting eyes and broken screams haunt the film.
Grown out of the stage play Kamikakete Sango Taisetsu,writer/director Toshio Matsumoto and cinematographer Tatsuo Suzuki pulls the horror to its most stark.The bare theatrical black and white backdrops are cut down with the sliver of swords and the spilling of Gengobe's revenge laying the demons across the screen.
Staying close to the roots of Tsuruya Nanboku and Shuji Ishizawa's play,the screenplay by Toshio Matsumoto strikes the film with a brittle intimacy, which crackles with an atmosphere of engulfing darkness gripping the exchanges between Gengobe and Komon. Keeping the horror mood bubbling just under Gengobe, Matsumoto makes Gengobe's outbursts ones that sting with suffocating, merciless doom,as Komon sees the faces of Gengobe's demons.
The plot:
Exiled out of his samurai clan, Gengobe starts a passionate love affair with geisha Komon. Given the opportunity to re-join his group, Gengobe receives a reinstatement payment. Being the first payment he has received since the exile,Gengobe is horrified to find that someone has stolen his cash,which leads to Gengobe unleashing his avenging demons.
View on the film:
Towering above everyone, Katsuo Nakamura gives an extraordinary expressive performance as Gengobe,with Nakamura's high standing and curled arms giving Gengobe a demonic appearance. Set against a stripped backdrop, Nakamura digs into the lack of Gengobe's remorse with a burning fury being cast across his face. Enticing Gengobe, Yasuko Sanjo gives an emotionally raw performance as Komon,whose darting eyes and broken screams haunt the film.
Grown out of the stage play Kamikakete Sango Taisetsu,writer/director Toshio Matsumoto and cinematographer Tatsuo Suzuki pulls the horror to its most stark.The bare theatrical black and white backdrops are cut down with the sliver of swords and the spilling of Gengobe's revenge laying the demons across the screen.
Staying close to the roots of Tsuruya Nanboku and Shuji Ishizawa's play,the screenplay by Toshio Matsumoto strikes the film with a brittle intimacy, which crackles with an atmosphere of engulfing darkness gripping the exchanges between Gengobe and Komon. Keeping the horror mood bubbling just under Gengobe, Matsumoto makes Gengobe's outbursts ones that sting with suffocating, merciless doom,as Komon sees the faces of Gengobe's demons.