Pity the old woman - living without sex and without beauty

Frank 2022-03-13 08:01:01

Although this black-and-white film completed by Kanto Shindo in 1964 has been labeled as a horror film, most people are praising it for its wild and full expression of raw eroticism. I think the almost ubiquitous reeds in the film have also become the most impressive image for everyone who has watched this film:

the reeds in the black and white world
can be quite meaningful in the sunset without wind and waves Ink painting;
in the light breeze, it can be a woman's uncontrollable spring love;
in the rain and thunder in the dark night, it can be the accomplice of evil spirits, as terrifying as the bones stretched out by countless unjust souls desperately crawling out of hell And the
dense reed grass and the huge black hole are matched together, and it is really like the private paradise that men desire most impulsively, or the endless hell that gives them the most inexplicable terror and anxiety.

But in my opinion, this film does not have the vitality brought about by women's sexual freedom and liberation, but instead is full of chain-like oppression and sadness under the hostage of women's existence.

At the beginning of the story, two strong warriors appeared in the vast grass. Just when we thought we would start a contest of strength between the two men, the dark sword that unexpectedly stretched out from the grass became the final cause of death of the warriors. When the stripped dead man is more like meat on a chopping board than a dead pig, dragged through the grass - dragged by two women in kimonos who move and eat like ape. The two women don't have any feminine features, not even human features, more like hunting animals in kimonos but succumbing to their instincts.

The appearance of the female characters of the two hunting animals begins with the old man who gives them food in exchange.

The old man made a sexual request, but the old woman refused, even with the possibility of an extra bag of rice. It can be seen that youth is more expensive capital than a bag of grain.

But the old man is not afraid, he has enough food to exchange youth. Therefore, when the escaped man went to exchange food again, there was already a youthful naked body lying in the depths of the old man's cave.

Youth represents strength. Only with strength can we kill more people and eat better meals. In the face of survival, various conditions and chips are simple and easy to understand.

When a man comes back and flirts with a young woman for the first time, the capital of unbridled frivolity is the big fat fish in his hand. Therefore, the generous gift of a big fish and the hint of "you are still young" can easily shake the heart of the young woman who was still angry.

Is it true that young women fall to men just to shoot every night?

A careful comparison of the first two women's efforts to waste nine bulls and two tigers can only show that they devoured the poor rice porridge, and since there is a tryst, women can always eat meat and fish.

Fullness and warmth, and then lust.

At an age when it would be a problem to eat enough, for a weak woman, lust is not so much a pleasure to enjoy, but an important bargaining chip that binds a bigger meal ticket.

It is precisely because of this that the cheating of a man and a woman poses a huge threat to the old woman - she can't kill by herself, can't exchange food, and can't survive. She tried to beg a man first, but she couldn't do anything. Just like what the man said, she still couldn't survive after killing her daughter-in-law, and she couldn't have the strength to kill a man. So, she had no choice but to rely on ghosts and gods to scare her daughter-in-law.

What's particularly interesting is that neither the old woman pretending to be a ghost nor the windy weather stopped the daughter-in-law from running away every night. Is this really the liberating self of a young woman ignited by lust? Perhaps the scenes of grilled fish that show up every night in the waiting men's shack already suggest that things aren't that simple.

In fact, after watching the whole movie, the only thing I was moved by was what the old woman said to the masked warrior:

"I've never seen anything really beautiful...I haven't seen it since I was born."

In this old woman In fact, there is no lack of beauty around her: rivers, reeds, their kimonos, precious samurai swords, but these natural or artificial beauties have been squeezed out of the old woman's vision because of survival.

As a woman ages, strength and sexual attractiveness fade with age, and her only survival without all leverage is at stake. When she was unmasked by her daughter-in-law, she declared a complete failure-
at the end of the film, the young woman chased by the "evil ghost" easily crossed the black hole. What about the old woman?
The moment she lifted her leg, the story was over and the answer was clear.

But I still want to ask, so what happens when that young woman gets old?

I remember there was a question on Zhihu, "What are the stories of fighting with evil dragons for a long time and becoming evil dragons themselves?"
There is a high-voted answer below this, "A bitter daughter-in-law becomes a mother-in-law".

The most surprising thing in the film is that
the daughter-in-law, who has long been accustomed to murder, will be frightened by her mother-in-law's statement that "after adultery and death, she will fall into the animal world".
How wrong can adultery be if murder is nothing?
What makes people even more interesting is the young man's relief to her: "Everyone has been like this for thousands of years." He did not deny his guilt, but excused himself by saying that everyone was committing a crime and the law was not responsible.
So what is wrong with that old woman, who is ultimately ruined just to survive?
In other words, who is innocent in this world?

When I go back and read the opening chapter, there are two women in kimonos who move and eat like apes, and two who don't have any feminine features, not even human features, more like hunting animals in kimonos that succumb to their instincts The woman dragged the dead pig-like corpse to the black hole, and the sudden sound of drums like a primitive tribal war dance made me more sure - who is innocent? Haven't they all been in the animal realm already?

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Extended Reading
  • Romaine 2022-04-21 09:03:46

    A dark allegory about war, survival, desire....

  • Earnest 2022-04-21 09:03:46

    A field of wild grass, an Asura field, troubled times, survival, desire, control, and alienation. On this grassland, the three people's living state has returned to the most primitive form of human beings. The whole film is to watch these layers of power devour each other, and the latter devours the former and then devours the former. What a masterpiece! Finally, the alienation of the old woman is the finishing touch. The daughter-in-law smashed Naraku's mask and it became a ukiyo-e-like picture of people who are not afraid of ghosts and gods. Even if you take off Naraku's mask, people are no longer human.

Onibaba quotes

  • Woman: Want to sleep with me?

    Hachi: [laughs] An old woman like you?

    Woman: Stupid! I'm not old on the inside. Come on. Try me.

  • Kichi's Wife: Isn't it heavy?

    Woman: No. Not very.

    Kichi's Wife: Shall I go along too?

    Woman: No, I'll go by myself.

    Kichi's Wife: But, it'll be night when you return.

    Woman: Once it's dark, it can't get any darker.