The Characters in Onibaba Never Mask Their Conflict Between Each Other

At the start of Onibaba, a pair of samurai are wandering through tall grass when they're attacked by some kind of ferocious creatures. Are they being hunted down by a pack of raptors? Perhaps a deadly assassin? Turns out, it's two villagers, known only as Older Woman (Nobuko Otowa) and Younger Woman (Jitsuko Yoshimura), who are now attacking any samurai who wander into the field of tall grass they reside in so that they can sell their armor for money that they desperately need. At first, this process is done simply for survival, but an element of personal vengeance is incorporated into the proceedings once samurai Hachi (Kei Sato) returns home from an ongoing war to inform that Kicki, the Older Woman's song and the Younger Woman's husband. has perished in combat, another body lying on a battlefield somewhere.


Now the Older Woman carries an even greater hatred towards samurai, particularly Hachi for a multitude of reasons. He survived while her son did not, for one thing while the fact that he's cozying up to Younger Woman doesn't help things. For much of the runtime of Onibaba, it's just these three characters trying their best to survive with each other despite the fact that they've each got their hang-ups with one another. Some movies would take this set-up and proceed to tell a story about everybody eventually working together to defeat some greater enemy. However, writer/director Kaneto Shindo opts for a more unique approach and decides to make the antagonism between the leads of Onibaba (especially Older Woman and Hachi) something that only escalates as the film goes on.

This trio of characters are cast-off's of society as symbolized by them living among tall grass that swallows them up whenever they walk outside. They vanish into the foliage just as quickly as they've vanished from the gaze of the wider world. With that isolated nature comes the side effect of there being nothing to distract them from one another. Hachi's romantic urges towards Younger Woman can never be pushed to the back of his mind while Older Woman has nothing around to keep her mind off the fact that Hachi is standing here alive while her son is not. In Onibaba, Shindo tells a yarn about how separation from the outside world creates inevitable discord between a trio of human beings rather than instilling unity in the name of survival.

It's a bleak outlook on human nature, but one that makes for a great thriller, especially since it’s told through striking cinematography that makes great use of a wider frame. Filmed in a 2.35: 1 aspect ratio, Onibaba's shots are vast and use their expansive quality to emphasize how alone the principal characters are. Other times, it's used in close-up shot's meant to startle the viewer, like instances where close-up shots of Older Woman wearing a creepy mask that seem to envelop the screen. Whatever visual ambitions Onibaba has, it accomplishes them through knowing how to use every inch of the frame.

This uniquely grim tone of Onibaba is also aided by throughly committed performances, especially the one given by Nobuko Otowa. This is a crucial part exemplifying the central theme of distrust leading to ruin and thankfully such an important part is handled by an actor who really manages to lend humanity to what could have been a one-dimensional caricature. You understand, though not fully agree with, what kind of circumstances have led to the characters fixation on keeping Younger Woman away from their samurai neighbor  A similar accomplishment is found with the work delivered by supporting actor Kei Sato. Though Hachi is still frequently a figure who comes across as a slob but the performance used for the character makes you understand the motivations for his behavior.

Dimensionalized characters aid Onibaba greatly, as does an interestingly ambiguous approach to the presence of the supernatural when a mask begins to factor heavily into the story. As Older Woman uses this mask to terrifying Younger Woman away from Hachi, it eventually becomes stuck to her face as a form of karmic justice. As the film ends on a sudden freeze-frame intentionally eschewing a tidy resolution, We’re left to contemplate if there was actually a supernatural factor influencing what happened to the Older Woman and that mask. Me? I lean more towards the interpretation that there is no supernatural element to Onibaba, it’s all just human error and vanity that led to the story’s conclusion. After all, human beings who don’t trust each other, like the three leads of Onibaba, are much scarier than any sort of haunted mask.