Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s -
Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s -
Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s -
Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s - Japanese Film Festival 2008 The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema - Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950’s – 60’s -

Japanese Film Festival 2008
The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema
- Masterpieces from its Golden Age 1950's - 60's -

The Ghost Story of Yotsuya
東海道四谷怪談
(TOKAIDO YOTSUYA KAIDAN)

The Ghost Story of Yotsuya The Ghost Story of Yotsuya The Ghost Story of Yotsuya

Color / Scope / 1959 / 74 min. / Shin-Toho

Directed by: Nakagawa Nobuo
Screenplay by: Oonuki Masayoshi, Ishikawa Yoshihiro
Photography by: Nishimoto Tadashi
Art Direction by: Kurosawa Haruyasu
Music by: Watanabe Hiroaki
Producer: Ookura Mitsugu
Based on a play by: Tsuruya Nanboku

CAST:
Tamiya Iemon: Amachi Shigeru
Oiwa, his wife: Wakasugi Katsuko
Osode, her sister: Kitazawa Noriko
Naosuke, Iemon's accomplice: Emi Shuntaro
Sato Yomoshichi, Osode's fiane: Nakamura Ryuzaburo
Oume: Ikeuchi Junko
Takuetsu, a masseur: Otomo Jun
Ito Kihei, Oume's father: Hayashi Hiroshi
Yotsuya Samon, Oiwa's father: Asano Shinjiro

SETTING: Edo era, 18th century, Bizen(Okayama) and Edo(Tokyo)

SYNOPSIS:
One winter in a castle town in BIZEN, TAMIYA IEMON, a masterless Samurai, murders his lover's father, YOTSUYA SAMON, and his friend, SATO HIKOBEI, for severing him from his lover, OIWA. NAOSUKE, a friend of IEMON, witnesses the murder and begins to blackmail IEMON. IEMON and NAOSUKE make the murder look like someone else did it. They leave for EDO under the pretense of taking revenge for the murder, with OIWA, OIWA's sister, OSODE, and YOMOSHICHI, OSODE's fiance and HIKOBEI's son. NAOSUKE, who is secretly in love with OSODE, gets IEMON to push YOMOSHICHI into the SHIRAITO waterfall.

Two years have passed and it is summertime in EDO, IEMON has become bored with being a masterless Samurai, and love has subsided between him and OIWA. One day he saves OUME, the daughter of ITO KIHEI, from a rascal. She falls in love with IEMON, and he approaches her with dreams of wealth and success. Once again enticed by NAOSUKE, IEMON decides to murder OIWA, by making TAKUETSU, a masseur, have an affair with her in the hope of catching her in the act of adultery. NAOSUKE also urges IEMON to poison OIWA, who is still having difficulty recovering after childbirth.

The poison instantly makes OIWA's face dreadfully disfigured, and she commits suicide. IEMON kills TAKUETSU on the pretext of adultery, and the bodies of OIWA and TAKUETSU are nailed to opposite sides of a wooden board and then thrown into the river. IEMON marries OUME, but the spirit of OIWA appears the first night. IEMON goes insane when he sees OIWA's ghost and slaughters OUME and KIHEI. Meanwhile, NAOSUKE has married OSODE, but OSODE is surprised and then suspicious when she discovers that the comb and kimono which NAOSUKE has fished out of the river belong to OIWA.

OIWA appears in front of OSODE and leads her to YOMOSHICHI, who is still alive. NAOSUKE seeks refuge in the temple where IEMON is hiding and attempts to blackmail him again, but in turn gets slaughtered. OSODE and YOMOSHICHI arrive at the sight and take revenge by killing IEMON. OIWA's beauty is restored and she ascends to heaven.

NOTES:
The original story is taken from a KABUKI script written by TSURUYA NANBOKU. It was first performed at NAKAMURA Theater in EDO in 1821, and has been on the stage repeatedly since then. It is the classic Japanese ghost story. Shin-Toho decided to make "The Ghost Story of Yotsuya" for the "OBON Season" (the Buddhist All Souls' Day festival) as ghosts are traditionally associated with OBON. The budget for the film was small but the director who received the project, NAKAGAWA NOBUO, succeeded in ingeniously reproducing NANBOKU's world.

In the original KABUKI script, IEMON is placed in a dilemma between faith and success. His fear of OIWA's spirit can be interpreted as an expression of the sense of guilt which is buried deep in his soul. By tracing IEMON's gradual inclination toward evil, the film reveals ugly but an ageless aspect of human behavior.

NAKAGAWA NOBUO adopts a classic method in filming which is reminiscent of the KABUKI stage, especially in the opening scenes. He also makes use of several surprising techniques in depicting the frightening world of the revengeful ghosts. An effective use of color which can only be accomplished by shooting in the studio, the TATAMI mats in the temple turning into the river in which the dead bodies were thrown and the slow motion shot of the cloth falling down from the ceiling, are a few examples of the ingenious cinematography.

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