Demon Pond
Masahiro Shinoda
Japan,
1979
Myth, magic, and mystery suffuse Masahiro Shinoda’s oneiric 1979 adaptation of Demon Pond, a fabular play by the renowned Kyoka Izumi. Wandering through the countryside, a schoolteacher (Tsutomu Yamazaki) arrives at a village suffering from severe drought. There, he discovers his long-lost friend, Akira (Go Kato), who is now married to Yuri (Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando), a potential sorceress whose fate is intertwined with a bell that must be rung to appease a nearby lake’s dragon god—otherwise, an apocalyptic flood will be unleashed upon the region. Desperate for water, the foolish villagers are planning to sacrifice Yuri to the dragon; meanwhile, a host of pond spirits, led by the love-smitten Princess Shirayuki (also Bando), debate whether they should save these humans from their deserved doom.
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