{"id":23827,"date":"2021-11-12T00:24:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T08:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=23827"},"modified":"2021-11-12T00:24:50","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T08:24:50","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-snake-girl-and-the-silver-haired-witch-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=23827","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE SNAKE GIRL AND THE SILVER-HAIRED WITCH (1968)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray is currently available from Arrow Video.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Arrow Video are a fantastic Blu-ray outlet, pressing quality\ncult and genre films week after week. And as an enthusiast of their product, it\u2019s\nalways great when the company release a fantastic and little seen curiosity. The\nSnake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch<\/em> is one such oddity, an extremely weird\nbut enjoyable and well-made Japanese feature from Noriaki Yuasa (director of the\noriginal Gamera<\/em> film, several of its sequels and the Ultraman 80 <\/em>TV-series).\nThis movie has never been released on any home video format in North America is\nnow officially debuting on Blu-ray. And, as you might have already guessed, the\nresults are spectacular. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loosely based on a Manga comic book, the strange plot\nfollows an orphan named Sayuri Nanjo (Yachie Matsui). The girl gets a pleasant shock\nwhen the head of her orphanage (Kuniko Miyake) informs the youngster that there\nwas a terrible mix up at birth. It seems that Sayuri\u2019s parents are still alive\nand that they\u2019d like to adopt her. The lead is thrilled to meet and live with\nher birth father Goro (Yoshir\u00f4 Kitahara) and mother Yuko (Y\u00fbko Hamada)\nwithout asking questions about how any of this could have happened. After arriving\nat the estate, it becomes evident that the family has a strange history.\nApparently, during the mix-up Sayuri\u2019s parents were given a child named Tamami\n(Mayumi Takahashi), but the child had psychological issues and was removed from\nthe household. If that wasn\u2019t unusual enough, the protagonist is also told that\nher mom is unwell after suffering some kind of head injury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Goro, an authority on snake venom, is forced out of town on a work-related trip, things turn from idyllic to freaky. Sayuri is cared for by Yuko and helper Shige Kito (Sachiko Meguro). The girl sees a strange shrine in the house and begins having disturbing visions of a \u201cSnake Girl\u201d wandering around. She eventually learns that troubled sister Tamami is still in the domicile, living under lock and key in the dank attic. Apparently, dad Goro knowns nothing about it. Sayuri tries to befriend her sister but finds Tamami to be nasty and cruel. In fact, the deranged child torments the girl and eventually swaps sleeping spaces with her. The unfailingly positive Sayuri does all she can to survive, enduring memorably bizarre and horrifying dreams (that may or may not be real, it isn\u2019t ever clearly defined), a threatening sister and the titular Silver-Haired Witch. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are too many plot holes to list in this review and the\ntone is awfully dark and disturbing for a fantasy movie focused on kids. But that\nisn\u2019t a criticism. If anything, it makes the picture more unique and attention-grabbing.\nThe plucky and sweet lead is extremely likable, reacting with positivity to several\nshocking events (it eventually becomes amusing given being banished by family\nmembers to the attic and witnessing the deaths of several individuals). It\u2019s\nall over-the-top, but our lead and the entire cast are engaging, the visuals are\nunique and striking and the feature zips by at a quick pace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of the film\u2019s grimmer moments, there are some\nshocking and stunning interactions (or dreams) that involving a fanged, monstrous\nversion of \u201cSnake Girl\u201d Tamami pursuing the new arrival. The make-up is appropriately\nchilling and figure become even more intimidating as she throws snakes and attacks\nher sister. Even the human version of Tamami is unsettling. She appears to be wearing\na mask and looms over lead in a menacing manner. Some memorable scenes involve the\nbullying figure talking about eating Sayuri, but things even become graphic\nwhen she moves on to destroying the lead\u2019s favorite doll and, in a truly jarring\nmoment, taking and ripping apart Sayuri\u2019s large pet toad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This unpredictable movie is shot in widescreen and in black\nand white, helping establish a creepy, grim mood where seemingly anything can\nhappen (and often does without waning). Sayuri appears to be on the brink of\ndeath in several scenes, including the striking finale. It features the girl\nhanging several stories from the edge of a building site while an antagonist uses\na wooden tool to beat the youngster and make her fall. The scene includes shots\nof Sayuri\u2019s knuckles being bloodied and gashed open as she slowly loses her\ngrip. The camera looms overhead as characters fall and plunge to their deaths\nand it\u2019s another striking sequence in a movie chock-full of tense moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, despite some head-scratching narrative issues, the final\nfilm is compelling as a nightmare-come-to-life onscreen and the special effects\nand surreal figures linger long in the mind after the credits roll. As expected,\nArrow have given this film a fantastic transfer. The movie looks sharp and one\ncan clearly see just how beautifully lit the movie is, particularly during the eerie\ndream and nighttime sequences. Overall, it\u2019s an enjoyably surreal and nightmarish\nviewing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Besides the excellent high-definition transfer, the Blu-ray\nalso includes some great extras. The first is a film historian commentary track\nwhich analyses the picture and goes into the production history in greater\ndetail. We learn about the director\u2019s previous Gamera<\/em> features and the\ncommon elements between the them (noting the child protagonists). This expert\ndissects the various \u201cSnake Girl\u201d mythological legends and their influence on\nthe story, the original Manga comic, as well as other connections this movie\nhas to giant monster films of the era. He even makes connections between this\nfeature and future Japanese genre efforts like The Ring<\/em> and The\nGrudge<\/em>. There are plenty of interesting and enlightening observations, including\nfacts about the cast. Despite the Sayuri character being so well played by\ncharismatic young lead Yachie Matsuim, apparently this was her only starring\nrole and she was believed to have eventually had a career as a championship bowler.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a wonderful featurette on Japanese folklore\nand Manga. This authority begins detailing fascinating mythology from the\nregion and notes at how outside influences from surrounding countries and the\nUS ultimately altered traditional Japanese stories through the years, creating\nnew versions of old tales. Viewers will see some familiar Japanese titles being\nreferenced in the special, as well as plenty of lesser-known oddities certain\nto get viewers seeking out more movies. It\u2019s a very informative piece. And of\ncourse, the Blu-ray also contains fun publicity materials like the trailer and\nimage gallery, as well as an informative and colorful booklet with more details\nabout the movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had never heard of The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired\nWitch<\/em>, but I\u2019m thrilled to have watched it and am pleased that the people at\nArrow Video have gone about bringing it to a wider audience horror of monster\nenthusiasts in this part of the world. It\u2019s a surreal and very enjoyable effort\nfrom a noted filmmaker that is guaranteed to please anyone who appreciates\nJapanese genre films. This Blu-ray is definitely one worth picking up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray is currently available from Arrow Video. Arrow Video are a fantastic Blu-ray outlet, pressing quality cult and genre films week after week. And as an enthusiast of their product, it\u2019s always great when the company release a fantastic and little seen curiosity. The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch is one such oddity, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[98,1836,2923,2949,3075,4236,8084,8174,9319,10386,14186,18415,18575,22234,22235],"class_list":["post-23827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-98","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-reviews","tag-blu-ray-reviews","tag-childrens-film","tag-gamera","tag-genre-picture","tag-horror","tag-japanese","tag-monster","tag-silver-haired-witch","tag-snake-girl","tag-the-snake-girl-and-the-silver-haired-witch","tag-the-snake-girl-and-the-silver-haired-witch-blu-ray-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}