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Kuroneko (1968) is a spectacularly eerie, poetic and visually elegant Japanese ghost story with a shocking feminist angle. Experience it on the big screen with an atmospheric live soundtrack by Animal, Surrender! Post-rock/weird-folk/trance with minimalist electronics and an intricate rhythm sectionKuroneko (Black Cat). Directed by Kaneto Shindo, 1968, 99 mins.
In this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispatch the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with his own personal demons as well. From Kaneto Shindo, director of the terror classic Onibaba, Kuroneko (Black Cat) is a spectacularly eerie twilight tale with a shocking feminist angle, evoked through ghostly special effects and exquisite cinematography.
Animal, Surrender! is Peter Kerlin (Sunwatchers and Chris Forsyth & Solar Motel Band) and drummer Rob Smith (Grey/Smith, Rhyton, Pigeons, D. Charles Spear). Kerlin leads the duo through a set of bass-driven compositions and interpretations, incorporating spare electronics through a post-rock/weird-folk trance with intricate and sometimes blasted interplay between the rhythm section. The project’s title refers to the ambiguous creatureliness of the human animal: How in trying to K*ll the animal within we eradicated all wildness on the planet; How in our never-ending evasion of any discomfort we guaranteed the destruction of all that sustains us. It's about other things too, like falling outs among friends and how even if it's the end it's not the end.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
"Rōninon the run calmly munch rice while their comrades brutally attack two women and then torch their farm; samurai riding to the rescue of a damsel in distress in the dead of night at the looming Rajomon gate turn up dead with their throats ripped out; an erstwhile farm boy, back from the wars with the head of a fearsomely giant warrior, has a new task: eliminate the apparent ghost! But those two women he meets look a lot like... Adapting from a Japanese folk tale, astringent social critic Kaneto Shindo (THE ISLAND, ONIBABA) blends the sound of rustling grass; the look of an ominously foggy bamboo forest (seen in strikingly high contrast b&w photography); the blackest of black cats in close-up; the subtlest of special effects (the forest slipping sideways behind the mansion in the grove); a spirit's slow-motion acrobatics; softly falling snow covering a staring corpse amidst a burned-out ruin; the hypnotizing repetition of events; Noh Theater-like stylization of action; alternating moments of jarring music and utter silence; a genuinely tender and sensuous reunion of lovers; the ultimategiri-ninjo(honor/humanity) conflict; and a duel with a vengeful spirit in a locked room; to achieve a simultaneously creepy, romantic, and tragic atmosphere, as well as a searing critique of the entire samurai ethos. With Shindo's longtime collaborator and companion, the great Nobuko Otowa, as the mother — or is she? "Shindo's ability to construct a haunting atmosphere through visual and aural details — a silent, slow-motion leap over a pool of water, unexpected character entrances and exits, off-screen meows, creeping fog and billowing curtains remains powerfully effective." – Doug Cummings, FILM FORUM
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Epsilon Spires, 190 Main Street,Brattleboro, Vermont, United States
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