Kuroneko Blu-ray/DVD (Criterion)
RELEASE DATE: October 18, 2011
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. Check out the trailer here.
– New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the
Blu-ray edition)
– Video interview with director Kaneto Shindo from the Directors Guild of Japan
– New video interview with critic Tadao Sato
– Theatrical trailer
– New and improved English subtitle translation
– PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Maitland McDonagh and an excerpt
from film scholar Joan Mellen’s 1972 interview with Shindo
