A young woman finds herself battling a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her doppelgänger in Takashi Shimizu’s folk horror.
Jul 14, 2022 • Subscribe
More like this
![Featured image for Ox-Head Village 牛首村 (2022) Director: Takashi Shimizu [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220718/1658163540.39912.69618.jpg)
Ox-Head Village 牛首村 (2022) Director: Takashi Shimizu [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]
“Ox-Head Village” is the third film in Takashi Shimizu’s “Village Horror Triptych” that mixes together folk-horror, social media, urban legends and a touristic time. S…
Ox-Head Village (2022) review
A solid horror-movie that pleasantly utilizes a sense mystery to engage the spectator and fluidly integrated unsettling imagery to put the spectator ill at ease and even scare…
Homunculus (ホムンクルス, Takashi Shimizu, 2021)
Is the world we see merely a self-created illusion, or do we each share a concrete, objective “reality”? It’s a question which seems to obsess the antagonist of…
Otherside Picnic (Episode 3) – Big-Head Village
Sorao agrees to go exploring with Toriko again, even after the last time. For whatever reason, she struggles to say no to Toriko. This time they’re searching for…
Immersion (忌怪島／きかいじま, Takashi Shimizu, 2023)
An attempt to recreate the “real” in the “virtual” causes a rupture between this world and another in Takashi Shimizu’s high tech horror.
Village of Eight Gravestones (八つ墓村, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1977)
A young man is called to the country to inherit a cursed fortune in Yoshitaro Nomura’s eerie adaptation of the Seishi Yokomizo mystery.
村上
Immediate Reactions to Murakami's New Novel - How to Japanese - April 2023
Kaguyahime: Shimizu Reiko
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter has long been a favourite of mine, if only because every time I come across it, I am honestly blown away by…
Takashi Nakamura spotlight
Yoshinori Kanada might be the most influential Japanese animator, but he isn’t the only one whose work revolutionized anime. Almost as important as him is Takashi Nakamura. Nakamura…
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Shashinkan, The Hakkenden: Legend of the Dog Warriors, Catnapped, Fantastic Children
Happy Year of The Ox! 2021
Happy 2021! Let's hope it's a little better than 2020, at least...
Kubi (首, Takeshi Kitano, 2023)
Apparently in gestation for a couple of decades, it’s unsurprising that Takeshi Kitano gave himself the role of Hideyoshi in a long-awaited historical drama adapted from his won…
Ushiku (牛久, Thomas Ash, 2021)
Filmed mainly with hidden camera, Thomas Ash’s harrowing documentary exposes a series of human rights abuses at the Ushiku immigration detention centre
Murakami Takashi: Mononoke Kyoto
Finally went and saw the Murakami Mononoke Kyoto show that’s been up for half a year or so. I generally tend to think of Murakami as over-hyped, if…
DitO (Takashi Yuki, 2024)
A dejected boxer’s life is overturned when his estranged daughter comes to stay with him in Takashi Yuki’s sporting drama.
Dragon Head
A manga about high school teenager Teru Aoki, who awakens to find himself trapped in a tunnel with only two other survivors after an earthquake derails the bullet…
Junk Head
By Jonathan Clements. In the far future, the human race is extremely long-lived, but infertile. One by one, they are dying off, with no sign of a solution.…
Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro-Biyori by Shimizu Yuu
The WorldCON panel about food in anime just ended. What a great set of panelists! What fun! I may have squeed a bit when someone in the audience…
Seiyuu Highlights: Ayumu Murase 村瀬 歩
He's perhaps known for playing mostly roles of shounen characters, which does somehow reflects his overall young physicality for someone who's in his early 30s. Support me…
Village (2023) review
Introduction Michihito Fujji might not be a big name in Japanese cinema, but he has, over the last few years, put himself on the international map, be it…
Takashi Yamazaki is the GOAT [Editorial]
Even though it has been several months since the premiere of Godzilla Minus One , the fallout dust resulting from warm reception of the film...
Episode 44 - Dr. Takashi Fujitani (Toronto)
In this episode, Dr. Takashi Fujitani traces the origins of Japanese nationalism and imperialism to the Meiji Period and delineates the impacts of nationalism on historical memory in…
Takashi Miike - A "Bloody" Good Director
Takashi Miike is a truly one-of-a-kind film director, not only in terms of the outrageous and freaky films that he makes, but also the asto...
Sakuga Expresso – Gundam Unicorn, Takashi Hashimoto
Sakuga analysis of Takashi Hashimoto’s scene in Gundam Unicorn
GOODNIGHT HEAD 2041
Cool-looking as it was, my enthusiasm for NIGHT HEAD 2041 was starting to fizzle out in the last couple weeks, and now I’m putting it to bed for good.…
Seiyuu Highlights: Nakamura Yuuichi 中村 悠一
He has the charm, the look, and especially the voice. From playing plain ass jerks to charming high-school princes, his diverse range of roles have been the pinnacle…
Dancing Girl (踊子, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1957)
The arrival of a free-spirited younger sister creates chaos in the live of a chorus dancer and her violinist husband in Hiroshi Shimizu’s elegantly lensed melodrama.
Eiichi Shimizu Does it Again: RIOBOT Raideen
Eiichi Shimizu is quickly becoming the hottest mecha designer nowadays. From doing Linebarrels of Iron, to the ULTRAMAN manga, and even western properties like Tech-On Avengers most recently.…
Qwan (Volumes 1 &2) by Aki Shimizu
As I continue to plow through my TBR pile uncovered while cleaning, I finally came across two manga in a row! I even have number 1. Will miracles…
![Featured image for Kubi 首 (2023) Director: Takeshi Kitano [Japan Cuts 2024]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240717/1721234729.87409.127466.jpg)
Kubi 首 (2023) Director: Takeshi Kitano [Japan Cuts 2024]
Kubi 首 (2023), directed by Takeshi Kitano, is a historical epic that amps up the violence and sex for satire’s sake as Kitano takes aim at the absurd samurai social…
Presentation: Takashi Yamazaki retrospective for Kaiju Masterclass
Forgot to post this here earlier, but here’s a presentation for Kaiju Masterclass from earlier this month, giving an overview of Takashi Yamazaki’s entire filmography and speculating ab…
Takashi Miike: The Happiness of the Katakuris
This episode, Chris (@gokuffy) leads Kory (@taiikumenco) special guest Dana (@Izandra) through the first (of many??) Takashi...
Off Village: Daisan Bougyoheki
A manga about a secret village hidden in Japan where the dead reanimate. When the reanimated eat a living human they transform into a horrifying skinless monster. Continue…
Sayon’s Bell (サヨンの鐘, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1943)
An indigenous woman becomes a martyr for the Japanese empire after drowning in a river while carrying the possessions of a Japanese policeman in an unabashed propaganda effort…
“Head” for the Hills
Calloo callay! Our favorite demon bureaucratic wonk is back for a second season of marvelous mayhem in “Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2” (“Hōzuki no Reitetsu”). You know, Hell is not…
Head in the Clouds
Anime lost a legend this week: art director Nizo Yamamoto. His work transformed the medium from fantasy into an all-enveloping reality for fans.
15 Jan: My head.....
No post summary was provided.
Episode 654: Mairimashita! HEAd
A very late arrest, chaotic anime, and pizza. These topics and more are on this weeks episode of Anime Pulse. Up first IRL news gets Joseph playing gravedigger…
Night Head 2041 – 01
「結界」 (Kekkai) "Onset" This show has a strong nightlife vibe (expected from a show called Night Head, right?).
Godzilla Minus One (ゴジラ-1.0, Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)
A kamikaze pilot finds himself haunted by the manifestation of his war trauma in Takashi Yamazaki’s entry into the classic franchise.
Takashi Kojima【小島崇史】Sakuga MAD
Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onhBN0qkUcE Takashi Kojima is an animator of enormous talent and skill, with the ability to draw any character design perfectly while still maintaining his own unique style. I've…
September 1923 (福田村事件, Tatsuya Mori, 2023)
Hysteria leads to tragic consequences in Tatsuya Mori’s narrative debut
Suicide Forest Village (2021) review
“A mystery-horror experience that is, in all aspects, better than ‘Howling Village’.”
Cow’s Neck Village (Ushikubi mura)
Kōki in Cow’s Neck Village. Takashi Shimizu’s kyōfu no mura (scary village) trilogy has been, if anything, an interesting experiment. The three films—Howling Village (2020), Suicide Forest Vi…
Night in the American Village
It’s easy to think of things in black and white, and to paint things with a broad brush of imperialism, colonialism, racism, militarism (take your pick). But dig…
Yellow Dragon’s Village (2021) review
“A fabulous film and a true B-film sensation.”
![Featured image for Kubi 首 (2023) Director: Takeshi Kitano, Shuta Takahata [Japan Cuts 2024]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240717/1721234730.87408.127465.jpg)
Kubi 首 (2023) Director: Takeshi Kitano, Shuta Takahata [Japan Cuts 2024]
Kubi 首 (2023), directed by Takeshi Kitano, is a historical epic that amps up the violence and sex for satire’s sake as Kitano takes aim at the absurd samurai social…
Otherside Picnic #02 — Head Gate
We hardly knew you, crazy conspiracy dude. Impressions: I don't know whether the writer or the director should be more embarrassed about this episode. So much of…
Episode 496, "Horrifying Fish Head"
On this week’s episode of The One Piece Podcast we have Stephen Paul (translator for One Piece in Weekly Shonen Jump) with us to go through an interview…
Popcorn pulse 109: Dr Head
There’s nothing quite like public domain characters for making movies from. How about a wacky take on Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde? What if the great great grandson…
First Impressions: Night Head 2041
After a vision of lines of light arising from the 3D world and connecting with each other, we cut to a nocturnal Japanese city. The world is close…