Thanks again to the incredible success of J-Horror and American remakes of J-Horror films (which, for better or worse, is an almost dead trend), the floodgates of foreign horror films have opened, allowing film fanatics the first opportunity to see many incredible, and not so incredible, films in their original languages and framing.

Of course, what we’ve actually seen stateside is but the small tip of the biggest iceberg for unreleased foreign films. Last year, Nobuo Nakagawa became the talk of the elite when the influential Criterion Collection label released Jigoku, which is a surreal masterpiece of being a magnet to bad luck. Since then though, there has been nothing. Not a single other Nakagawa film has graced the silver disc in North America.

Thankfully, this recently changed when Synapse, in conjunction with Panik House gave us another example of Nakagawa’s handiwork, Snake Woman’s Curse.

The story begins with a peasant family in danger of having their farm repossessed by a landlord named Onuma (Seizaburô Kawazu, Sex and Fury) who is owed a lot of money. The poor farmer in his debt, Yasuke (Ko Nishimura) dies no doubt due to the strenuous job of working the fields and stressing over how he is going to pay Onuma back. Following his death, Yasuke’s wife Sue (Chiaki Tsukioka) and daughter Asa (Yukiko Kuwabara) are forced into slave labor by Onuma. Their house is destroyed to make room for more profitable crops and the two of them move into their master’s home.

Onuma is cruel, but even his villainy is rivaled by his wife and son Takeo (Shingo Yamashiro). Takeo is, to put it nicely, is a complete son of a bitch. Not long after the accidental death of Sue who cracks her neck on a woodpile trying to protect a snake from being needlessly bludgeoned to death, Takeo takes advantage of Asa’s virginal emotional fragility and rapes her. Partly out of lust, partly out of dominance and even partly just to piss off her boyfriend who she was saving herself for. Being defiled in this manner is enough to make Asa question if she shouldn’t even take her own life. Unnatural deaths breed vengeful ghosts though, and soon courtesy of the victimized snake, the spirits of the family return to haunt the horrible men and women who destroyed their lives.

The main problem that I have with Snake Woman’s Curse is that it’s simply too straight forward. The jump scare moments are almost telegraphed, and the only characters that are routinely haunted are the villains so I had no sympathy for those being spooked. If you can’t follow where I’m going with this, it’s that there is no point where the audience should ever feel any semblance of fear nor will they even be unsettled. This is made all the more noticeable with such an unoriginal story – one which we’ve all seen before in every language. The lack of sympathy for the villains is more than made up for with great volumes of sadness for the family. Despite the film’s short running time, so much of it focuses on the persecuted family that I felt emotionally drained after I was done watching it. In fact, the serious (read, fatal) haunting isn’t delivered until the final half hour of the film. For this, I would actually recommend the film to non-horror fans. Snake Woman’s Curse is exceptionally well paced.

And regardless of the predictable story, there are plenty of merits to make for a good viewing. I was impressed with the style of the film. The lighting, and conversely, the use of shadows is quite effective as you’ll no doubt notice from some of the images on this page. The use of lantern light in particular offers a soft damaged and distanced look to faces that would have otherwise appeared natural. I really enjoyed the opening sequence and the daring use of an extremely wide shot. (Framing looks something like 4.0:1) The scenery, as often is the case for films shot in rural Japan, is nothing less than stunning. It’s the credit of whoever scouted these locations and the cinematographer that makes Snake Woman’s Curse grasp for your attention visually when the script, like your drunken uncle at a mixer, takes a nap on your couch, wakes up and then covers the same ground once more.

I’m not naïve enough to look to the Criterion Collection to tell me what the best cinema in the world is. But based on the wonders of Jigoku, I’m guilty of going in to Nobuo Nakagawa’s Snake Woman’s Curse with perhaps unfairly lofty expectations. I wasn’t incredibly impressed with this film, but I would be more than willing to give Nakagawa another chance (probably more than that), provided more of his films become available.

The DVD Presentation
Synapse and Panik House have put together a near-perfect transfer for the American debut of Snake Woman’s Curse on DVD. The anamorphic transfer has bold colors throughout and looks exceptionally sharp. I didn’t notice any compression flaws and the print is clear as can be. It really looks like a new movie. The Japanese Mono track isn’t going to redefine sound design, but it has no hissing or background noise, which is excellent since there are sometimes long stretches of silence. It’s a great sounding DVD and naturally, English subtitles are included. A+

And the Extras Are?
Audio Commentary with Japanese film scholar Jonathan M. Hall –
I really enjoyed this scene-specific commentary. It’s obvious that Hall knows his stuff about Japanese film and he has a great deal of interesting things to say about Nakagawa, this film and Japanese culture. If you’re a fan of Snake Woman’s Curse, or just want to learn a bit, turn on this track, it probably only runs roughly 3/4ths of the film anyway, so it isn’t very time consuming.

Theatrical Trailer – (2:44)
This is an effective trailer, although like most Asian trailers it seems to go on too long and reveal too much. It does capture the somberness of the film as well as the creepy jump scares.

Poster Gallery –
An awesome collection of roughly 21 poster images of Nobuo Nakagawa’s films. It’s a great gallery for those that like this type of feature. There are lots of cool posters within.

Nobuo Nakagawa Biography –
This great text bio by author Chris D. discusses Nakagawa’s life including his upbringing and how he got into working in film. It covers a lot of ground and only serves to ultimately upsetme for not having the opportunity to see most of these.

Liner Notes –
It’s becoming increasingly rarer that DVDs have inserts, so I’m always pleased when I see one. This fold-out insert only has one article by Alexander Jacoby which gives a great deal of background on Nakagawa, the rediscovery of his films, and Snake Woman’s Curse in particular. Since most of Nakagawa’s films are rare in the States, I found this to be a very informative piece.

Reversible Cover Art –
Since the DVD is packaged in one of those transparent cases that seem to be all the rage for indie studios these days, Synapse thoughtfully included the original Japanese poster art on the reverse side allowing you to flip it over if you prefer that image. The Japanese image has an artfully done piece of the two female leads with a snake wrapping itself around one of them. Both covers are great.

While not quite as packed with extras as Horrors of Malformed Men, which Synapse released the same day, it’s still an excellent release since all of the extras are of high quality.

The Bottom Line
Being a fan of Jigoku, I wanted to like Nakagawa’s Snake Woman’s Curse, and I do. I can’t really get too crazy about it though. It isn’t a bad film, but it is an average ghost tale that I’ve seen done in other Asian films as well as other countries. I wouldn’t be against rewatching Snake Woman’s Curse, and I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from watching it, but I can’t see myself coming back to it anytime soon. Nakagawa fans are going to love this DVD though, as it’s an excellent presentation of a very rare film and, while it has less extras that one might expect, the commentary is chock full of information. Hopefully someone will start releasing more of Nakagawa’s films to the States so that an accurate look at his catalogue can be made.