Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1979 • Japan
Starring Tamasaburo Bando, Go Kato, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Japanese New Wave renegade Masahiro Shinoda transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia. When a lone traveler (Tsutomu Yamazaki) stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants—including lovers Akira (Go Kato) and Yuri (Kabuki legend Tamasaburo Bando, who also plays the ethereal princess reigning over the water)—in their hands. Set to the swirling strains of electronic-music pioneer Isao Tomita’s synth score, DEMON POND blends theatrical artifice with cinematic surrealism for an aquatic-apocalyptic fable of human love and folly caught in the current of nature’s wrath.
Up Next in Directed by Masahiro Shinoda
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Assassin
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1964 • Japan
Masahiro Shinoda's Assassin (aka Ansatsu) was the director's first period film - but it is hardly set in the "safety" of a past era, as its story, of a masterless samurai (Tetsuro Tamba) making his way amid the chaotic aftermath of Commodore Perry's fo...
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Pale Flower
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1964 • Japan
Starring Ryo Ikebe, Mariko KagaIn this cool, seductive jewel of the Japanese New Wave, a yakuza, fresh out of prison, becomes entangled with a beautiful and enigmatic gambling addict; what at first seems a redemptive relationship ends up leading him f...
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Youth in Fury
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1960 • Japan
An alienated young man flirts with extremism during a major student protest. Directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
