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DVD REVIEW . Snake Woman’s Curse

When I was young we spent a few years in Texas. Apart from the impressive array of bugs, including cockroaches and scorpions, we were also pestered by a fair number of snakes. On one or two occasions we actually had a snake end up in the house, but the encounter I remember most clearly was a time when my father was doing some yard work in front of the house and a snake came up to visit. Just as quickly as my sister and I voiced an according alert, my father brought the shovel he was using down on the snake’s head, killing it instantly. Now the snake most likely wasn’t anything more than a common garden snake, but to my 6 year-old mind it was as dangerous as a rattler. My father was a hero, and I made sure to relate the tale of his bravery to all my friends the next time I saw them.

However, had I any knowledge of Nobuo Nakawa’s Snake Woman’s Curse, or the Buddhist tradition and superstition regarding snakes from which the film draws heavily (thank you, DVD essay insert) , I might have thought twice about the consequences of his actions, as killing the snake might not have been the best way of handling things.

Taking place toward the end of the Meiji era, Snake Woman’s Curse tells the tale of the destruction of a poor farming family at the hands of an unfeeling, money grubbing landlord, and their subsequent acts of supernatural vengeance. After the sudden and unexpected death of their head of household (a direct effect of the landlord’s uncaring nature), a woman and her daughter are forced to relinquish their farmland and enter into servitude at the household of their landlord. There, in an effort toward paying off their crushing debt, they are forced to endure sixteen hour work shifts under the watchful eye of the landlord’s ever so cruel wife and obese, rapist son (thankfully, his actions are depicted off screen).

During one of these lengthy work sessions, a snake appears in their workspace. The overseers respond by attempting to kill it, yet the mother, feeling sorry for the creature, makes an earnest attempt toward saving it. Alas, her efforts prove in vain, and after the resulting altercation neither the snake nor the woman are much longer for this world. The daughter, now completely unprotected fares even worse. Yet, as they say, karma’s a bit of a female mutt. Soon the landlord’s entire family find themselves plagued by scaly snake-like hallucinations, accompanied by the ghosts of the farmer and his family. Though their lot in life may have been less than fair, their vengeance in the afterlife will prove suitably sweet.

Being only the second Nobuo Nakagawa film I’ve seen, I can’t really say how it compares to his other work. It’s definitely not as impressive as his Jigoku (often cited as his best film), but it’s still musters heavy doses of style and substance. The narrative itself is fairly depressing, with the poor wife and daughter being punished more relentlessly and regularly than Cinderella, and the landlord’s family so exceedingly despicable and mean, I can’t say I would revisit the film any time in the near future. That said, the situation of the characters is given the weight it has directly because of the nuanced performances on the part of each and every cast member. While I’m not quite sure who played who in the whole scheme of things (there are no credits matching names to characters, and IMDB looks to be of no help), the woman who handled the landlord’s wife proved particularly scorn-worthy (I felt like hissing at her every entrance), and the man who played the landlord’s son similarly slimy (he actually reminded me of a sukebe coworker). Likewise the mother and daughter are believably sweet and selfless, even when their actions seem to defy common logic.

In addition to the sold acting, the film has quite an impressive visual style, its impeccably framed shots employing heavy doses of shadow, theatrical lighting and corresponding trickery in realizing its ghosts. Further helping to convincingly convey the creepy are numerous ominous textures (ie: snake-scaly tatami mats), good old fashioned prosthetic effects work, and a spooky saw-blade soundtrack. There are quite a few bits toward the very end that reminded me of of Jigoku’s fog-heavy realization of hell. Altogether, these aspects of the film reminded me of high quality Hammer productions, if Hammer ever set about doing a gothic tale set in the Far East.

Going back to the whole Buddhist superstition aspect, and my opening anecdote, the film assumes a familiarity on the part of the viewer, and never really describes why one should not kill a snake, other than to simply not do it. Therefore, having viewed the film I am still probably not well enough equipped to think of any reason not to kill a dangerous snake if encountered, though, given the subsequent events in the film, I would have to assume that it’s simply not a lucky thing to do.

In closing, Snake Woman’s Curse is a visually impressive film, and certainly deserves a look. It’s a prime example of classic Japanese horror that merits a place next to similar quality efforts, Jigoku and Kwaidan. That said, its narrative might be a little too depressing to recommend more than a single viewing to the everyday viewer.

The DVD.
The second in Synapse and Panik House’s latest batch of Japanese horror classics, Synapse’s release of Snake Woman’s Curse is equally noteworthy. The film’s transfer is quite impressive, on par with the restoration work Criterion did on Jigoku. Blacks are ultra black, which is quite important when ghosts disappear into darkness, and definition of textures is respectably high. Colors are very crisp, all staying perfectly in place, even when double-checked on a small bedroom television with analog RCA hookups.

Sound is equally clear, and Dolby 2.0 Japanese audio track, maintaining the original mono soundtrack of the original film, more than does the job.

However, in the extras compartment, when compared to Synapse’s release of Horrors of Malformed Men, Snake Woman’s Curse seems to have received a bit of a less enthusiastic production. On display here are a collection of theatrical posters for Nobuo Nakagawa films (some very cool ones, I might add), a lengthy biography on Nagakawa by Chris D., and the original theatrical trailer for Snake Woman’s Curse. These are still pretty nice and informative, and on par with some of Panik House’s other Pinky Violence releases.

Also included is another excellent commentary, this time by Japanese film scholad, Jonathan Hall, and an essay insert by Alexander Jacoby on the film itself. As with Horrors of Malformed Men, the DVD also includes a reversible cover featuring the new art by Wes Bescoter on one side, and the original poster art on the other. Both are equally cool here, so I might be flipping these back and forth for a while.

All in all, Snake Woman’s Curse is a respectable disc, which (as mentioned above) deserves a place in your collection next to Criterion’s Jigoku and Kwaidan. One of the best parts about this and Malformed’s releases is that they are very fairly priced (as far as I can see at the local stores), and certainly be rationalized as a blind pickup. Check it out.

Easter Egg Update

Like Horrors of Malformed Men, Snake Woman’s Curse hides an easter egg in its poster gallery extra. To access, navigate to the first Jigoku poster and press Up a number of times to see the film’s trailer.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.