A 67-minute fever dream where desire literally refuses to die — ero-guro meets folklore in Technicolor.
Based on a traditional Japanese ghost story, the movie follows a man who falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman, only to find she belongs to the world of the dead.
Cinematography
Psychedelic color washes that make death look gorgeous.
Practical Effects
Grotesque ghost makeup that still haunts my peripheral vision.
Direction
Sone channels Mizoguchi by way of a panic attack.
Director
Chūsei Sone
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is Sone's 1972 pink film reimagining of 'Yotsuya Kaidan,' Japan's most adapted ghost story — think Shakespeare's revenge tragedies but with more rotting flesh.
Chūsei Sone made this for Nikkatsu Studio's Roman Porno line, meaning he had roughly 70 minutes and mandatory nudity quotas to transform a 19th-century kabuki classic into something that would play in 1972 grindhouses.
JP
