Demon Pond (1979 film)

Demon Pond (Japanese: 夜叉ヶ池, Hepburn: Yasha-ga-ike) is a 1979 Japanese romantic fantasy film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. It is an adaptation of the 1913 play of the same name by Izumi Kyōka, with an adapted screenplay written by Haruhiko Mimura and Tsutomu Tamura. The film stars Tsutomu Yamazaki, Go Kato, and Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando.

Wandering through the countryside, a schoolteacher, Gakuen Yamasawa, arrives at a village suffering from severe drought. There, he discovers his long-lost friend, Akira, who is now married to Yuri, a rumored sorceress whose fate is intertwined with a bell that must be rung each day to appease a nearby lake's dragon god—otherwise, an apocalyptic flood will be unleashed upon the region. Desperate for water, the foolish villagers plan to sacrifice Yuri to the dragon. Meanwhile, a host of pond spirits, led by the lovesick Princess Shirayuki, debate whether they should save the humans from their doom, or allow the princess to see her lover, Kengamine.^[1] The villagers break into Yuri's home, intending to sacrifice her on the back of an ox. Akira and Gakuen return and try to convince the mob to spare Yuri, but the village leaders, including the Diet Member, refuse to listen. During the confrontation, Yuri commits suicide by stabbing herself with a sickle. Akira decides not to ring the bell and unleashes the flood, which destroys the village. He then commits suicide with the sickle. Gakuen survives by tying himself to a pillar of the belfry, while the corrupt village leaders drown in the flood. Princess Shirayuki, finally able to freely visit her lover, rises from the water with the other pond spirits and disappears into the sky.

• Tamasaburo Bando as Yuri / Sharayuki (Yuki), the dragon princess
• Go Kato as Akira Hagiwara
• Tsutomu Yamazaki as Gakuen Yamasawa
• Koji Nanbara as Priest Shikami
• Yatsuko Tanami as Nurse
• Norihei Miki as Catfish messenger
• Fujio Tokita as Crab
• Hisashi Igawa as Carp
• Jun Hamamura as Yatabei, the bell keeper
• Megumi Ishii as Camellia
• Ryûnosuke Kaneda as Diet Member Kozo
• Juro Kara as Denkichi
• Toru Abe as Village leader
• Shigeru Yazaki as Village teacher
• Hatsuo Yamaya as Villager Yoju

In 1978, a popular stage production of the Demon Pond play was shown in Japan. This stirred interest in creating a film version of the play. Tamasaburo Bando, at the time a world-famous Kabuki onnagata actor, was brought on to star in the film playing the dual role of Yuri and Yuki. As this was Bando's film debut, he was not used to the idiosyncrasies of film, particularly, the use of closeups. He would frequently delay production and ask for retakes as he did not like the way his face appeared in closeup shots.^[2]

The film's soundtrack heavily uses mood synthesizers, and mixes classical and techno music genres. Scenes that take place on dry land are often accompanied by remixes of songs by Debussy, whereas underwater scenes are scored by remixes from Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.^[3]

Nobuo Yajima was hired as the special effects director for the film. He made extensive use of composite shots in the film, and utilized an optical printer to combine different shots. Blue screens and miniature sets were also used, particularly during the scene where the village floods. A water column coming from the pond was created by pouring water into a basin on a solid background, which was composited onto footage of the pond via an optical printer. The footage of water pouring was reversed to give the illusion that the water was rising out of the pond. Miniature sets were created of the village which were flooded with liters of water being poured on the sets. Matte effects were also used in shots where villagers are seen running from the deluge.^[4]

Shochiku released Demon Pond in Japanese theaters on October 20, 1979. Upon release, reviews in Japan praised Tamasaburo Bando's performance.^[5]

Aside from one television broadcast on TV Asahi, the film was not re-released for 42 years. It would eventually be restored on 2021 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shochiku as a film distributor. Director Shinoda and actor Bando supervised a 4K restoration of the film, which aired on the Shochiku-operated channel Satellite Theater in March of that year. It was re-released theatrically in the following summer.^[6]

Janus Films handled the American distribution of the film. The restored version made its premiere at MoMA as the opener of its Beyond Ozu: Hidden Gems of Shochiku Studios series on June 10, 2022.^[7] The Criterion Collection released the film on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD on October of 2024, its first ever home video release in North America.^[8]