Always great revisiting a japanese classic finally making its way into the HD era as there's still so much good stuff unavailable outside of Japan. This flick, directed by Yasuzo Masamura who also directed a good deal of other classics such as Giants and Toys, Blind Beast and Black Test Car, with a script penned by non other than Kaneto Shindo, carries all the hallmarks of both, the storyline about a woman seemingly possessed by a stigmatizing evil demon tattoo feeling kinda like an extension of a similar "possession" story in Shindo's Onibaba. I first saw this thing fairly early into my exploration of japanese cinema and didn't quite know what to make of it at the time. It's a curious mixture for sure, using elements of a revenge thriller just as much as a very classic brand of japanese tragedy, as forshadowed by the sentiment of Otsuya while on the run with her lover, "It feels like we're actors in a play". Indeed they are, blissfully unaware all the same while equally oblivious to the fact that these stories rarely end happily.