Kuroneko (1968) (1968) poster
1968 · horror · drama

Kuroneko (1968)

Directed by Kaneto Shindō1h 40m1968
ElsewhereTMDB7.4231
  • heavy
  • measured
  • intense
  • surreal
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, measured, measured horror / drama, surreal in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost.

Our read · Kuroneko (1968) (1968) reads as a heavy, measured, surreal horror · drama entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Video previewNo trailer available for this one.
Where the cast leads
Fingerprint

The shape of Kuroneko

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want elegant black-and-white Japanese ghost cat revenge horror.

ends bittersweetit stays with youa slow buildgrips by minute 12attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upnuditygraphic violence

Skip it tonightYou want fast horror or can't handle period dialogue and atmosphere.

If Kuroneko is your film
Onibaba (1964)
same director's folk horror sex and death
Ugetsu (1953)
ghostly Japanese period drama beauty
(less horror)
The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond (1960)
classic Japanese kaibyo ghost cat tale
(rarer)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Your take
Rate it
star-clip-1-0star-clip-2-0star-clip-3-0star-clip-4-0star-clip-5-0
React
Discussion

Discussion

cmd enter to post

What does your Movie DNA look like?

Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.

Calibrate yourself