What fuels such violence against helpless children? This is the subject of Yoshitaro Nomura's The Demon (Kichiku, 1977), a kind of case study that alternates between a harrowing clinical realness and the confident momentum of a Hitchcockian thriller / policier. Suffice to say that despite the title and cover art this is not a ghost story / horror movie, though just as intense.

Because so much of the film's impact depends on not knowing which directions its story will take, this review will offer only a spoiler-free set-up: Sokichi Takeshita (Ken Ogata), who with his wife Oume (Shima Iwashita) run a struggling print shop, are confronted by Kikuyo (Mayumi Ogawa). She informs Oume that she had been Sokichi's mistress for many years and after bearing three of his children is unemployable and on the verge of starvation. She demands financial support but when the weak-willed Sokichi stands by as Oume adamantly refuses "even a mousquito net," and cruelly questions the authenticity of Kikuyo's claims, the mistress suddenly bolts out into the darkness, leaving her three small children behind.

Unable to locate Kikuyo, the Takeshitas, already on the verge of bankruptcy (their print shop burned down and operates out of a glorified shed), have reached the breaking point. Oume, consumed with anger at her husband's infidelity, refuses to have anything to do with the children, leaving Sokichi with the task of changing diapers, feeding and corralling his unhappy kids. As he juggles myriad responsibilities, her resentment manifests into escalating physical abuse.

The Demon was based on an acclaimed novella (short story? sources differ) by Seicho Matsumoto, a former newspaper reporter. Director Nomura adapted at least seven other Matsumoto stories into movies, The Castle of Sand (Suna no utsuwa, 1974) being a well-regarded example, and specialized in character-driven mysteries and thrillers, often with a political context. The year before, Nomura had directed Village of Eight Gravestones (Yatsu haka-mura), a critically-lauded Detective Kindaichi mystery, while both Ogata and Ogawa would move on to Shohei Imamura's not dissimilar Vengeance Is Mine (Fukushu suruwa wareniari) in 1979.

The first half of the picture especially has the authenticity of a Fredrick Wiseman documentary. Shima Iwashita, a superb but physically icy actress, is convincing as a woman whose hateful and irrational behavior is a consequence of justified rage against her unfaithful, irresponsible husband. Her verbal and physical abuse of the children, including an infant, is extremely hard to watch. (Would Hollywood's top actresses be willing to play someone so reprehensible?) The youngest child appears genuinely traumatized in several scenes and one wonders how such graphically real abuse was staged.

In some respects, Mayumi Ogawa is even better, playing a classic tragic Mizoguchi/Naruse-type mistress whose ex-lover all too quickly abandons her at the first sign of trouble. Her transformation from high-class waitress at an expensive inn to sweaty, over-burdened mother is impressively believable, as is her own anger at Sokichi.

Patrick Macias, in his insert essay on the film, makes the case that The Demon's ultimate aim is to dramatize an unbreakable bond between parents and children, even in climates of abuse and worse. Sokichi may be a miserable failure of a father, but the film seems to say that even with all the abuse heaped on the children, the bond somehow remains. Like Ogata's serial killer in Vengeance is Mine, Sokichi's desperate but clueless parent is treated with enormous humanism by Masato Ide's (Red Beard, Ran) script. Ogata, very good, won numerous awards for his performance, including the Best Actor prize from both Kinema Jumpo (which put this and another Nomura film, The Incident, on their "Best Ten" list) and at the Japanese Academy Awards. Shinobu Otake, who makes a strong impression as a gentle policewoman, won the Supporting Actress prize.

This bond is clearly the focus of the picture's second half, which moves into Hitchcockian territory in its execution. (Yasushi Akutagawa's strings-dominated score even has Herrmann-esque cues, with a smattering of Michel Legrand, a longtime favorite of the Japanese.) Nomura isn't married to one particular approach; he's flexible enough to give his actors plenty of room, while injecting more visually oriented sequences little splashes of style. Mostly though, these are filmed very matter-of-factly, and as Macias points out, their very ordinariness probably terrified children dragged to see this otherwise adult film.

Popular character actors Kunie Tanaka (as a policeman) and Hideji Otaki (as a loan officer) make guest star cameos.

Video & Audio

The Demon was shot for 1.85:1 widescreen (what the Japanese call "VistaVision size") and Home Vision's DVD is 16:9 anamorphic. The image is bright with strong color, but riddled with edge enhancement and digital artifacting. This is so bad that a few shots approach the look of a VCD. An especially irritating flaw comes in the form of a kind of pulsating video flash that's very noticeable during darker shots through most of the film. This is unusual for Home Vision, suggesting perhaps that the inadequate transfer was made in Japan by Shochiku, which similarly has provided inferior masters to Panorama Entertainment, a home video label which distributes Shochiku titles in Hong Kong. Overall the DVD is still watchable, but obviously flawed. The mono sound at least is clean without any problems. The English subtitles are optional.

Extra Features

The best extra is Macias's brief but useful Insert Essay, which looks at the film and provides a little background on Nomura and Matsumoto. The spoiler-filled Trailer should be avoided at all costs until after you've seen the movie. It's 16:9 anamorphic and rightly sells the picture as a prestige production.

Also included are Filmographies for Yoshitaro Nomura and Ken Ogata. These aren't particularly well organized. Some entries are listed by their international title, some by Japanese titles without translation, and each list includes only the title and release year, with no background, synopses, and the like. A cheesy promo for Home Vision's line of Zatoichi movies is also included.

Parting Thoughts

The Demon is a compelling character study / thriller. The transfer is a big disappointment but the film is so good that overall this title still comes Highly Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.