It is yet another TOKAIDO YOTSUYA KAIDAN (1959), but this time from experienced horror director Nobuo Nakagawa!

Balancing a return to its kabuki roots with a forward-looking use of colour and surrealism, this horror takes your hosts by storm! The film stars Shigeru Amachi, Katsuko Wakasugi and Shuntaro Emi.

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 28:53; Discussion 44:01; Ranking 1:00:54

🌟 GLOWING STAR - what do they think about when they look at the night sky? is there someone they want to star gaze with?

-Emi.

oc emoji asks.

i wanted to reply with a snarky comment, but you're somewhat right about me thinking about something.

are all versions of us, in all of the realities, looking at the same sky?

and no, i'd prefer to be alone. unless @kuinaoflight or @cheshire-shuntaro want to stargaze — i'll tag along.

good to see you, emi.

— fate

💋

-Emi.

"Well, what happened this time?" Chishiya inquired, resting his arm on his waist. Emi became a permanent part of his office as of late. Broken noses, scraped knees, tummy aches — the young woman seemed to get in scraps every other day. It almost made him wonder if she did that on purpose, just to see him. Shuntaro didn't give this thought any more power, as Emi stepped into his office and sat down on the bed sheepishly presenting her bruised cheek, which was covered by her hand up to now. Chishiya let out a slight sigh and brushed his fingertips against the purple-yellowish skin, the bruises looked almost like distant galaxies coming together in one beautiful arrangement.

"Let me see." He said, getting closer to Emi and before he could have a second to think his eyes were lingering on her full lips, and his forehead was pressed against hers. "You do not need to pretend having injuries to see me." He whispered, closing the distance between them.

Katsuko Wakasugi in Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1959)

Cast: Shigeru Amachi, Katsuko Wakasugi, Shuntaro Emi, Ryuzaburo Nakamura, Noriko Kitazawa, Junko Ikeuchi, Kikuko Hanaoka, Hiroshi Hayashi, Jun Otomo, Shinjuro Asano. Screenplay: Masayoshi Onuki, Yoshihiro Ishikawa, based on a play by Nanboku Tsuruya. Cinematography: Tadashi Nishimoto. Production design: Harayasu Kurosawa. Film editing: Shin Nagata. Music: Michiaki Watanabe.

Keisuke Kinoshita's 1949 version of the much-adapted ghost story, Yotsuya Kaidan, jettisoned the supernatural in favor of the psychological, turning the protagonist, Iemon, into a somewhat more sympathetic, even tragic figure. But ten years later, Nobuo Nakagawa went straight for the horror: a bloodthirsty, ambitious Iemon (Shigeru Amachi), who doesn't even need Naosuke's (Shuntaro Emi) Iago-like promptings to descend straight into murder. In fact, if you try to apply psychology to Nakagawa's Iemon, you'll run up against some blank walls: It's hard to understand why Iemon in this version even bothers to settle down to a life of umbrella-making after his slaughter of Oiwa's father and his complicity in Naosuke's dispatch of Yomoshichi (Ryuzaburo Nakamura), his rival for Osode's (Noriko Kitazawa) hand. By this time, Iemon is steeped in blood so far that "returning were as tedious as go o'er," to put it in Macbeth's terms. In this version, the ghosts of Oiwa (Katsuko Wakasugi) and Takuetsu (Jun Otomo) are particularly real and vengeful, not just phantoms of Iemon's imagination, as in Kinoshita's version. They lead Iemon into slaughtering Ume (Junko Ikeuchi) and her father and finally to his own doom. Nakagawa's film lacks the subtlety of Kinoshita's, but in the end I think that's for the good: What you want from a ghost story is catharsis, not irony.

Your roommate misses you.

-Emi.

the game took longer than i expected, but i'm here now. brought you a cute piggie toy from scavenging. don't mind my bitch face, @cheshire-shuntaro decided to come over.

— f