Shindo on Shindo

Below is an excerpt from an interview between Kaneto Shindo and Joan Mellen.

The prolific Japanese director talks about his whole career. Below he discusses the social elements at work in his supremely eerie horror folktale, "Onibaba" (1964).

Mellen: I find the social dimension of your films very complex and interesting. Would you describe how in your films you depict the class struggle as it appeared both in history and society?

Shindo: Speaking about Onibaba in particular, my main historical interest focuses on ordinary people... their energy to carry themselves beyond the predicaments they encounter daily. I wish to describe the struggles of the so-called common people which usually never appear in recorded history. This is why I made Onibaba. My mind was always on the commoners, not on the lords, politicans, or anyone of name and fame. I wanted to convey the lives of down-to-earth people who live like weeds.

Mellen: In the setting of Onibaba I noticed that the people seemed very small, moving around a lake where the reeds were very tall and imposing.

Shindo: Yes, the tall, swaying reeds are my symbol of the world, the society which surrounds people. In Kuroneko bushes are used for the same symbolic end. Tall, densem swaying reeds represent the world in which these commoners live and to which the eyes of lords and politicians do not reach. My eyes, or rather the camera's eyes, is fixed to view the world from the very lowest level of society, not from the top.