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What do you get when Noriaki Yuasa, director of Daiei Studios’ much-beloved Gamera series, makes a monochrome film adaptation of the works of horror manga pioneer Kazuo Umezu (The Drifting Classroom)? The answer is 1968’s The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, a fantastically phantasmagorical slice of twisted tokusatsu terror ostensibly made for children that will irreparably traumatise any child that sees it!

A young girl named Sayuri is reunited with her estranged family after years in an orphanage – but trouble lurks within the walls of the large family home. Her mother is an amnesiac after a car accident six months earlier, her sullen sister is confined to the attic and a young housemaid dies inexplicably of a heart attack just before Sayuri arrives… is it all connected to her father’s work studying venomous snakes? And is the fanged, serpentine figure that haunts Sayuri’s dreams the same one spying on her through holes in the wall?

Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut and its home video premiere outside Japan, this rarely-screened, nightmarishly disorienting creepshow not only displays a seldom-seen side of kaiju auteur Yuasa, but its skilful blending of Umezu’s comics (published in English-language markets as Reptilia) arguably anticipates many of the trends seen in J-horror decades later.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original uncompressed mono audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Brand new commentary by film historian David Kalat
• This Charming Woman, a newly filmed interview with manga and folklore scholar Zack Davisson
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork by Mike Lee-Graham
  FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Raffael Coronelli

What A Disgrace wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 6:50 pm Snake Girl... is a title I wanted to see since the numerous supplements in the Gamera set mentioned it, so I'll happily snatch it up. Sounds wild.

Snake Girl has been on my wish-list since 1995, when I saw a still from it in Denis Gifford's Pictorial History of Horror Movies.

Mondo Digital.

Beaver.

Delayed until Dec 14

My copy has nonetheless finally shipped from DiabolikDVD.

I blind bought this as Arrow's curation of Japanese horror and sci-fi titles is usually very good. This might be the most kid unfriendly children's film I've ever seen. The film has so much physical and mental abuse thrown at one child who somehow manages to keep an endlessly chipper attitude. It's actually upsetting and can't think of many children who would take enjoyment in watching a cute little girl being threatened with acid, having her precious toy smashed to bits, and having her hands repeatedly smashed. It's surreal with its narrative too as it features numerous odd coincidences, unbelievable moments, and moments that are never made clear if they're real or no. The previous Noriaki Yuasa films I've seen are all incredibly optimistic even in darker moments and but what makes this film so confounding is that positive attitude of his contrasting with Kazuo Umezo's incredibly grim and grotesque fable. I emphasis fable as it really has a fairy tale quality in its unreality. I loved this release and I'm very glad Arrow put this out.

David Kalat's commentary on this is as golden as any he's done. I feel like every Blu-ray now has a superfluous commentary track, but Kalat goes beyond just listing IMDB credits and really does a great job of analyzing genre interestingly and fitting it into a larger picture. I'm very grateful he still makes these despite his full-time job.