Kaidan hebi-onna is known in English as Snake Woman’s Curse, or sometimes Ghost Story of the Snake Woman, and it stars Sachiko Kuwabara, who is also known as Yukiko Kuwabara, and whose last name is read informally as Kuwahara. These various designations have caused some confusion online, but whether Sachiko or Yukiko, or Kuwabara or Kuwahara, they’re all the same woman. She doesn’t star on the poster, though—that honor has been reserved for Yukie Kagawa, who’s there because, well, we’ll get to that.
The plot here involves a cruel landlord in feudal Japan who overworks a sharecropper couple, bringing about their untimely deaths by illness, causing them to linger as vengeful spirits who regularly pop up and scare the shit out of everyone. The couple’s bereft daughter also soon dies, but by her own hand. The landlord and his son begin seeing spirits and snakes everywhere, and even begin to think those close to them are becoming snakes. Kagawa undergoes such a transformation, though only imagined by the villains, and that’s why she’s on the poster despite her secondary role in the film.
Kaidan hebi-onna is well shot and acted, but the blood efx are amateur hour and the snake sequences mainly consist of the poor creatures being thrown into shots from off-camera. Based on the highly polished look of the film, we’d have thought there was enough budget to get this stuff right, but what do we know? Maybe all the money went into the sets and costumes. Not frightening, but still an atmospheric evocation of classic revenant themes, Kaidan hebi-onna opened in Japan today in 1968. You can see an alternate poster for the film here, and as a double bonus, below are two promo photos of Kuwahara, or Kuwabara. Talk about cold blooded—she must be freezing inside and out.
Japanese horror movies feature plenty of tricks and treats.
Teruo Ishii’s Kyôfu kikei ningen: Edogawa Rampo zenshû, aka Horrors of Malformed Men, or sometimes Horror of a Deformed Man, is a movie that touched sensitive nerves in Japan when it was released. Not only was it gruesome and somewhat erotic, but the malformed men were a direct reference to Japan’s post-nuclear nightmare. The fact that their physicality mimicked Japan’s Butoh dance form, a type of performance emphasizing bizarre movements, made the movie even more disturbing. So much so that it was banned upon release and really only gained widespread availability upon being licensed for DVD. It premiered in Japan today in 1969, which brings us to the point of sharing it with you—it’s Halloween in the US, and in Latin American countries it’s the beginning of Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Japan celebrates neither holiday, but we can’t imagine anything serving as better homage than Japanese horror posters. Below you’ll find an unlucky thirteen of them for movies released in Japan between 1954 and 1969. Information on each appears below the art.
Bin Kato’s Kaibyo Oumaga-tsuji, aka Cat Ghost of Ouma Cross, 1954. Japanese horror is rife with ghost cats, presumably because the concept dates back to early folklore. In this movie a kabuki actress is murdered via ingesting poison, and when a cat licks up some of her blood it becomes possessed by her very angry spirit. We never thought we’d see another blood-swilling cat. We werewrong.
Yoshihiro Ishikawa’s Kaibyô noroi numa, aka Ghost-Cat Cursed Pond, 1968. Both the standard promo and the panel length art appear above. This one is a period piece set in the 1600s, and the mechanism this time involves a woman who, rather than accept a forced marriage to the man who brought about her husband’s death, instead drowns herself and her pet feline. Cue mayhem.
Kinnosuke Fukuda’s Kaibyo karakuri tenjo, aka Ghost-Cat of Karakuri Tenjo, also sometimes referred to as Ghost Cat in the Ceiling, 1958. We haven’t seen this one, and neither has anyone else, apparently, because we can’t find anything on it. But if the cat in the ceiling is anything likethisone, we’re terrified.
Kenji Misumi’s Kaibyo Noroi No Kabe, aka Ghost Cat Cursed Wall, also sometimes referred to as Ghost Cat Wall of Hatred, 1969. In this one, a noblewoman accused of an affair is sealed behind the wall of a mausoleum with—wait for it—a cat. Pretty soon an image of the cat appears on the wall, and the fact that it can’t be removed is an indication of the catastrophe—oh no we didn’t—to come.
Kazuo Mori’s Akadô Suzunosuke: Mitsume no chôjin, aka Red-armored Suzunosuke: Three-Eyed Birdman, 1958. We cleverly transition from cats to birds with this poster. The movie, which was adapted from a comic book and led to a film series of which this is the seventh installment, is the tale of a samurai battling an evil gang of demonic beasts led by what looks like a demented Foghorn Leghorn. We waited all film, but not once did it quip, “I say, I say, I say, boy, chicken cordon blow me.”
Katsuhiko Tasaka’s Kaidan yonaki-doro, aka Ghost Story: Crying in the Night Lantern, 1962. This one we haven’t seen, but it seems to be the story of a man who exposes a crime and ends up buried alive for his troubles, a terrible punishment referred to in the States as being “Manninged.” No word on whether there’s a cat in there with him.
Kimiyoshi Yasuda’s Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi, aka The Depths, The Ghost of Kasane, and The Ghosts of Kasane Swamp, 1960. This is complicated to explain. Basically, a demand to repay a debt leads to murder, followed by the victim’s body being dumped in a swamp. The victim’s ghost rises from the swamp and tricks the murderer into killing his own wife, which leads to him drowning himself in the same swamp. The story then leaps forward to examine the consequences on the victim’s daughter and the murderer’s son, Romeo and Juliet style: “My god—your dad disappeared in Kasane Swamp too? It’s like we were made for each other!”
This poster is for a triple feature of Michio Yamamoto’s Noroi no yakata: Chi o suu me, aka Lake of Dracula, Nobuo Nakagawa’s Tôkaidô Yotsuya kaidan, aka Ghost of Yotsuya, and a third movie that has something to do with a swamp (though presumably not Kasane Swamp), and maybe hell too. We won’t get into synopses for these, but you can see a trailer for Lake of Draculahere, and for Ghost Story of Yatsuyahere.
Tokuzô Tanaka’s Kaidan yukijorô, aka Ghost Story of the Snow Fairy, or sometimes The Snow Woman, 1968. In this one a sculptor and apprentice venture into the mountains seeking a special wood they plan to use to build a statue. A snow witch (standard in Japanese folklore) kills the sculptor but spares the apprentice, who continues his life and work, but with the whole icy episode hanging over his head. Soon he meets a beautiful young woman, falls in love and marries her, thus condemning her to that special brand of hopeful impoverishment reserved for the talented poor. Oh, and more witch.
Hiroshi Matsuno’s Kyûketsu dokuro-sen, aka Ghost Ship: Living Skeleton, or sometimes just The Living Skeleton, 1968. Cited as an influence on John Carpenter’s The Fog, the story opens with a massacre aboard a ship and the rest deals with events of supernatural justice set into motion by relatives of the murder victims. Since living skeletons don’t really figure into this, it should probably just be called “Ghost Ship,” like the 2002 American horror flick that ripped it off.
Nobuo Nakagawa’s Kaidan hebi-onna aka Snake Woman’s Curse, 1968. As you have doubtless noted, revenge is a strong motif in Japanese horror, and this one is no exception. When an old man dies in debt to a rich landowner, his wife and daughter become, according to feudal law, indentured servants. The landowner is astonishingly cruel, which means the widow and daughter suffer all the expected indignities and violations—multiple times—but just when he thinks he’s going to get away with his misdeeds things start to go pear-shaped for him. Trailerhere.
We’ll have more Japanese poster collections down the line. Happy Halloween/Day of the Dead everyone.
With the help of the CIA, General Augusto Pinochet topples democratically elected President Salvador Allende in Chile. Pinochet’s regime serves as a testing ground for Chicago School of Economics radical pro-business policies that later are applied to other countries, including the United States.
2001—New York and Washington D.C. Attacked
The attacks that would become known as 9-11 take place in the United States. Airplane hijackings lead to catastrophic crashes resulting in the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City, the destruction of a portion of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a passenger airliner crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Approximately 36% of Americans doubt the official 9-11 story.
1935—Huey Long Assassinated
Governor of Louisiana Huey Long, one of the few truly leftist politicians in American history, is shot by Carl Austin Weiss in Baton Rouge. Long dies after two days in the hospital.
1956—Elvis Shakes Up Ed Sullivan
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing his hit song “Don’t Be Cruel.” Ironically, a car accident prevented Sullivan from being present that night, and the show was guest-hosted by British actor Charles Laughton.
1966—Star Trek Airs for First Time
Star Trek, an American television series set in the twenty-third century and promoting socialist utopian ideals, premieres on NBC. The series is cancelled after three seasons without much fanfare, but in syndication becomes one of the most beloved television shows of all time.
1974—Ford Pardons Nixon
U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office, which coincidentally happen to include all those associated with the Watergate scandal.
