The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
"Tôkaidô Yotsuya kaidan" (original title)

The ghost of a samurai's wife takes revenge on her husband.

Director:

Nobuo Nakagawa

Writers:

Masayoshi Ônuki (screenplay), Yoshihiro Ishikawa (screenplay),

Stars:

Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shigeru Amachi	...	Iemon Tamiya
Noriko Kitazawa	...	Sode
Katsuko Wakasugi	...	Iwa
Shuntarô Emi	...	Naosuke
Ryûzaburô Nakamura	...	Yomoshichi
Junko Ikeuchi	...	Ume Itô
Jun Ôtomo	...	Takuetsu
Hiroshi Hayashi
Shinjirô Asano	...	Samon
Arata Shibata
Kikuko Hanaoka	...	Maki
Hiroshi Sugi
Yôzô Takamura
Nagamasa Yamada
Hiroshi Izumida

Storyline

This classic Japanese horror movie directed by Nobuo Nakagawa is based on an 18th-century masterpiece written by Nanboku Tsuruya. It is about a woman who haunts her husband after she dies a miserable death. The story has terrified the Japanese people for ages.

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Plot Keywords:

samurai | ghost | japanese | poison | masseur | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

11 July 1959 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Ghost of Yotsuya

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shintoho Film Distribution Committee

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Dream House (2009)

User Reviews

a Pearl in the Crown of Japanese Slasher Flickage

Iemon Tamiya ( Shigeru Amachi, the hero of Jigoku ) is a samouraï without Master ( ronin ) who wishes to marry Iwa, the girl of the Samon lord. One evening, it waits on the property of Samon that this one returns to him, in order to ask him last once the hand of his daughter, but Samon wants nothing to know, and milked Iemon of libertine, doubled of an imbecile. Iemon perhaps, which does not have a row but does not remain about it less one man of honour, carries out Samon and its continuation at once, under the amused glance of its servant, Naosuke, which sees an occasion there to increase its capacity on its Master. The two men decide to make wear the hat in Usaburo, a samouraï of which any Okayama knows hatred towards the late one. Yomoshichi, whose father belonged to the guard of Samon, decides to avenge the death for his/her own father, but also for that which was on the point of becoming his/her father-in-law: indeed, it had obtained the hand of Sode, the sister of Iwa. The two couples in becoming get under way in order to avenge death for Samon, accompanied by Naosuke. Six months later, Naosuke, in love with Sode, decides to make sing Iemon so that it helps it to get rid of Yomoshichi - death that the two men put again on the back of Usaburo. Naosuke and Sode leave to the continuation the "culprit" while Iemon and Iwa, patient, settle in Edo. Two years pass, and the two sisters, from now on separated, still did not satisfy their thirst for revenge: Usaburo always runs. Iemon, married to Iwa, claims more not to have re-examined Naosuke whereas the two men find together means of tapping money with the Ito old man to remain, each one on their side. Iemon sees in EMU, the girl of this last, the possibility of obtaining a honourable position, and it is put consequently at the head to marry it. But for that, it must get rid of Iwa, become cumbersome - as well as faithful Naosuke suggests to him...

Tokaido-Yotsuyakaidan takes again a traditional history of phantoms to the Nakagawa sauce. One finds at the same time elements of Jigoku there , that the realizer would turn one year later, and of Borei-Kaibyoyashiki , filmed one year before. The three films put in scene a murder more or less reflected, made under an access of anger, which involves others of them before taking along the heroes to know the revenge on In addition to world. But the similarities do not stop with the topic. The character of Naosuke precedes that of Tamura in Jigoku , character of background which encourages the hero to make ignominies more and more. The end of the film, during which one rocks in pure film of horror, mixes the hallucinations of the assassin of Borei... and visual hallucinated hell of Jigoku . Moreover, Tokaido... is also a film rather gore for the time: that it is with the make-up of Iwa, properly horrible, or the torn off arm of Takuetsu, friend of Iemon victim of one of his machinations, Nakagawa never underestimates the impact of visual truly bloody.

But principal qualities of Tokaido... are of a visual nature: the realization is once more impeccable, modern for the time in its use of the framework and the out-field ( the scene where Iwa discovers the decomposition of its face in is an excellent example ), and contributes to make mount the trouillometer in a very convincing way for such an old film. The appearances of Iwa, nailed on the board on which it was drowned, show again some many modern "monsters". As for the last image of film, it returns as much to Jigoku as at the end of beyond Fulci ( very adequate comparison definitely for the study of the case Nakagawa ), with its ghostly figure within a monochromatic landscape which one guesses without difficulty infernal. A remarkable film of horror, which more is easily accessible to any fan from cinema from terror ( what is not inevitably the case of all films of the realizer ).