Snake Woman's Curse (1968)

Director: Nobuo Nakagawa

During the latter part of the 19th century, when some parts of Japan were being Westernized, some parts were still deeply rooted in the past. The story here has a cruel land-owning family seizing the property of a deeply-in-debt farmer. In an ongoing series of tragedies, the farmer dies, his wife and daughter are enslaved, the wife dies when trying to prevent the killing of a snake (it's considered bad luck to kill a snake), and the daughter is assaulted by the son of the landowner. Eventually, the spirits of the farmer and his family materialize in a quest for revenge.

IMDB


As the film opens we are given that the story takes place in the Meiji Period (1869-1912) on the outskirts of Japan. The Meiji Period is characterized historically as the turning point for the empire and the point in which Japan began to westernize. The film itself is set in a rural village with the traditional feudal system still in full effect.


A horse and buggy carry the feudal lord Chobei (Seizaburô Kawazu) home along a path beside his glorious fields. Aside the road the master is confronted by a man (Kô Nishimura), begging for mercy and the opportunity to continue to work the fields and repay his debt. Brutally bruised aside and left bloody by the side of the road he is helped back to his home by his wife Sue and his daughter Asa. Fatally wounded from the encounter Sue and Asa are forced into servitude for a period of 10-years to settle the the debit. Exploited and abused, it is not long before a minor transgression on the part of Sue results in her beating death. Left to fend for herself Asa too falls victim, this time to the Master’s heir, Takeo, and his sexual advances. Ashamed by what has transpired and admonished by her fiancé Sutematsu (Kunio Murai), Asa takes her own life. This course of events unleashes the fury of the dead, as the house is overrun by snakes and visited by blue hued spirits, all with one singular purpose—to exact revenge of the Master and his family.


Asian cult Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (KAIRO) once said that the difference between Western horror films and Eastern ones was simply that Western audiences are scared of ghosts attacking and in the East, the mere presence of the spirit—however impassive—was the greatest fear. SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE is a study in that philosophy of filmmaking. Very little happens in the film, which up until the third act is really nothing more sinister than a dramatic tale of one family’s suffering at the hands of unbridled serfdom. When the ghostly image of Sue begins to appear in the house, she is only seen in brief flashes shrouded in darkness and cloaked in a supernatural blue light. However her presence in the home is more than enough to unnerve the residents to a state of near anarchy. During the film’s climax as Kô Nishimura’s character returns to terrorize the master, he does little more than crawl across the floor repeatedly uttering “Even if I have to eat dirt, I’ll pay you back.”. It is effective in the context of the films tone, but to audiences accustomed to jump scares, orchestrated shocks and bloodcurdling terror, the moment is simply not earth-shattering.


SNAKE WOMAN’S CURSE may be a minor film in Nakagawa’s long career, but it is worth consideration for it’s influence. Perhaps it would be best to describe it as the original “Grudge” film—although plenty others preceded it. The fact is, so few of Nakagawa’s films have made their way across the Pacific that it would a shame for fans of Asian Horror—especially the new breed of J-Horror filmmakers—not to take advantage of acclimating themselves with the works of the men who built the genre.



Download:

http://hotfile.com/dl/78371362...s.Curse.1968.AH.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/78371394...s.Curse.1968.AH.part2.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/78371437...s.Curse.1968.AH.part3.rar.html

http://www.filesonic.com/file/...Womans.Curse.1968.AH.part1.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/...Womans.Curse.1968.AH.part2.rar
http://www.filesonic.com/file/...Womans.Curse.1968.AH.part3.rar

http://www.fileserve.com/file/...Womans.Curse.1968.AH.part1.rar
http://www.fileserve.com/file/...Womans.Curse.1968.AH.part2.rar
http://www.fileserve.com/file/...Womans.Curse.1968.AH.part3.rar

Interchangable links.