Sympathy for the She-Devil: Poison Women and Vengeful Ghosts in the Films of Nakagawa Nobuo

Nakagawa Nobuo (1905-84) is best known as the first major director of Japanese horror movies, with films such as Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan (‘The Ghost Story of Yotsuya,’ 1959) and Jigoku (‘Hell,’ 1960) often cited as major influences by the directors of Japan’s later international horror successes like Ringu (‘The Ring,’ 1998) and Ju-on (‘The Grudge,’ 2002). One year before completing his acclaimed adaptation of the Edo period (1600-1868) kabuki horror classic Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan, Nakagawa directed the historical melodrama Dokufu Takahashi Oden (‘Poison Woman Takahashi Oden,’ a.k.a. ‘A Wicked Woman’), based on fictionalized accounts of a famous real-life female criminal from the Meiji era (1868-1912). Despite major dissimilarities in the source material, Dokufu Takahashi Oden and Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan share a surprising number of formal and thematic points in common. Nakagawa uses the same actress, Wakasugi Kazuko, to portray Takahashi Oden and Yotsuya kaidan’s famous female onryō (vengeful ghost), Oiwa. Moreover, the two films structure Oden’s and Oiwa’s tragic character arcs among quite similar thematic lines, building both women’s narratives around a pivotal moment of monstrous transformation. While Oiwa returns from the grave as a hideous spirit intent upon revenging herself on her unfaithful husband, Oden becomes a living monster driven by the cruelties of society to swear vengeance upon the men who wronged her. By seizing upon a similar sense of nostalgia surrounding two quite different female characters from popular 19th century fiction, Nakagawa blurs the boundaries between horror and melodrama, creating a pair of complementary films in which the injustices of a patriarchal society give birth to monstrous feminine avengers.