The Tale of Oiwa's Ghost Blu-ray Review

Radiance Films

Blu-ray Release: June 24, 2025

Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Japanese LPCM 1.0 Mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 94:12

Director: Tai Katô

When the daughter of an elite family takes a shine to poor samurai Iemon (Tomisaburo Wakayama), he sees an opportunity to climb the social ladder. He just needs to rid himself of his only obstacle: his loving wife, Oiwa. He poisons her and dumps her corpse in a nearby swamp, but she returns as a horribly disfigured ghost to haunt Iemon on his wedding night. (From Radiance’s official synopsis)

Based on the folktale of the Oiwa spirit and two separate historically-documented murder cases, Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s kabuki play Ghost Story of Yotsuya in Tokaido (Japanese: Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan, 1825) is one of the – if not the – most commonly told Japanese ghost story. It inspired literature, art, other plays, and at least 30 films (and counting), including multiple silent adaptations, Daisuke Itô’s The Phantom of Yotsuya (Japanese: Shinban Yotsuya kaidan; aka: Yotsuya Ghost Story, New Version, 1928), Keisuke Kinoshita’s The Yotsuya Ghost Story (Japanese: Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan, two parts, both released in 1949), Shirô Toyoda’s Illusion of Blood (Japanese: Yotsuya Kaidan, 1965), and Kinji Fukasaku’s Crest of Betrayal (Japanese: Chûshingura Gaiden – Yotsuya Kaidan, 1994).

Of these many adaptations, I have now seen four: Nobuo Nakagawa’s The Ghost of Yotsuya (Japanese: Tôkaidô Yotsuya Kaidan, 1959), Kenji Misumi’s The Ghost of Yotsuya (Japanese: Yotsuya Kaidan, also 1959), Takashi Miike’s Over Your Dead Body (Japanese: Kuime, 2014), and, as of this review, Tai Katô’s The Tale Of Oiwa's Ghost (Japanese: Kaidan Oiwa no borei; aka: The Ghost Story of Oiwa's Spirit, 1961). Nakagawa’s film was decades ahead of its time in terms of on-screen violence, Misumi’s was an opulent tragedy, while Miike reframed things in a postmodern context. Released only two years after the 1959 versions, Katô’s adaptation differentiates itself as a raw, gritty, black & white film, almost resembling a neorealist telling of the story.

Katô’s approach, like Misumi’s, emphasizes the drama of its kabuki roots, occasionally even resembling a filmed stage production, albeit one lacking the quintessential elements of a kabuki performance (aside from a dream sequence near the climax). However, like Nakagawa, he also emphasizes the emotional intensity of the story, contrasting the static camerawork with vigorous handheld shots and sweaty close-ups. Tomisaburo Wakayama’s version of the antagonist, Iemon, skews closer to Shigeru Amachi’s monstrous portrayal in Nakagawa’s film than the tragic variation Kazuo Hasegawa played in Misumi’s, depicting him as a sadistic son of a bitch who is narcissistic enough to be manipulated. The violence isn’t nearly as grotesque as that of Nakagawa’s influentially gory shocker, but the scares certainly are magnified by the stark visual choices.

Katô was another workhorse in the Toei mines during the 1960s, making respectable jidaigeki dramas, such as Warrior of the Wind (Japanese: Kaze no Bushi, 1961) and Cruelty Of The Shogunate’s Downfall (Japanese: Bakamatsu Zankoku Monogatari, 1964) alongside a series of crime pictures, including the psycho-thriller I, the Executioner (Japanese: Minagoroshi no reika, 1968), three films in the yakuza-themed Red Peony Gambler franchise (1969, ‘70, ‘71), and prison drama Eighteen Years in Prison (Japanese: Choueki juhachi-nen, 1967). 

Bibliography:

• Introduction to Japanese Horror Film by Colette Balmain (Edinburgh University Press, 2008)

• Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film by Chris D. (IB Taurus, 2005)

Video

The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost was never released on North American VHS, but an anamorphic DVD-R with English subtitles was eventually made available from SinisterCinema.com, under the alternate title Ghost Story of Oiwa's Spirit. This represents the film’s worldwide Blu-ray debut and, as per usual, Radiance was given a completed 1080p transfer by Toei, so we don’t have a lot of information as to what went into the scan or restoration. The results are nice, however, also in keeping with Radiance’s other Toei releases. Cinematographer Osamu Furuya’s endlessly moody black & white photography is reproduced with all of the intended grit and high contrasts. There is a little room for improvement in terms of fine texture, but authenticity takes precedent and the overall clarity is good enough to differentiate details in the darkest compositions. Print damage is also minimal, mostly limited to small scratches and white dots.

Audio

The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost is presented in its original Japanese mono in uncompressed LPCM 1.0. The sound design is dialogue-heavy and the basic effects work is largely incidental. There’s some minor hiss at higher volume levels and dialogue is arguably over-squeezed at points, but aural consistency generally takes precedence. Composer Nakaba Takahashi’s mournful score has a slightly modern edge in the ways it melds sweeping symphonic themes with traditional motifs. Despite the pressed quality of some dialogue and effects, the music manages to sound quite rich and layered whenever it kicks into overdrive.

Extras

• 2025 introduction by Mari Asato (9:19, HD) – The director of Ju-On: Black Ghost (Japanese: Juon: Kuroi Shōjo, 2009) and Fatal Frame (Japanese: Gekijô-ban: Zero, 2014) discusses the original story, its ongoing relevance, and affection for this particular adaptation.

• Interview with Mari Asato (9:00, HD) – More with Asato, who talks about Katô’s work, style, themes, and elaborates further on what makes The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost special.

• Facing Oiwa (6:57, HD) – A visual essay from Circulating Fear: Japanese Horror, Fractured Realities, and New Media (Lexington, 2021) author Lindsay Nelson that compares/contrasts scenes from the four versions of Ghost Story of Yotsuya in Tokaido that I discussed here in my review, along with images from other Japanese female ghost movies.

The images on this page are taken from the Blu-ray and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.