Demon Pond (1979) (Criterion Collection, Restaurierte Fassung, Special Edition)

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Japanese New Wave renegade Masahiro Shinoda transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia. When a lone traveler (Tsutomu Yamazaki) stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants—including lovers Akira (Go Kato) and Yuri (Kabuki legend Tamasaburo Bando, who also plays the ethereal princess reigning over the water)—in their hands. Set to the swirling strains of electronic-music pioneer Isao Tomita’s synth score, Demon Pond blends theatrical artifice with cinematic surrealism for an aquatic-apocalyptic fable of human love and folly caught in the current of nature’s wrath.

DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
4K digital restoration, supervised by director Masahiro Shinoda and actor Tamasaburo Bando
New interview with film scholar Dudley Andrew
Program on the film’s special effects
PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson

New illustration by Yuko Shimizu