The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch

The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (蛇娘と白髪魔, Hebimusume to Hakuhatsuma) is a 1968 Japanese horror film directed by Noriaki Yuasa.[1][3] The film is about a young girl named Sayuri who is reunited with her estranged family after years in an orphanage, but discovers that her homelife involves an amnesiac mother, her sister is confined to the attic and begins to wonder if this is related to her father's experiments with poisonous snakes.[4]

The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNoriaki Yuasa
Screenplay byKimiyuki Hasegawa[1]
Based onHebimusune to Hakuhatsuki
by Kazuo Umezu[1]
Produced byKazumasa Nakano[1]
Starring
  • Yachie Matsui
  • Mayumi Takahashi
  • Yoshiro Kiahara
CinematographyAkira Uehara[1]
Edited byYoshiyuki Miyazaki[1]
Production
company
Distributed byDaiei
Release date
  • 14 December 1968 (1968-12-14) (Japan)
Running time
82 minutes[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Cast
  • Kuniko Miyake as Sister Yamakawa
  • Yuko Hamada as Yuko Nanjo
  • Sachiko Meguro as Shige Kito
  • Yachie Matsui as Sayuri Nanjo
  • Yoshiro Kitahara as Goro Nanjo
  • Tadashi Date as Ambassador
  • Mariko Fukuhara as Doll
  • Mayumi Takahashi as Tamami Nanjo
  • Osamu Maruyama as Doctor
  • Kazuo Umezu as Taxi driver

Release

The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch was released in Japan on December 14, 1968.[2] It was released in the United States by Daiei International Films with English subtitles in 1969.[2] The film was released on Blu-ray by Arrow Video in September 2021.[5] This was its blu-ray debut and the first time it was released on home video outside of Japan.[4]

Reception

From retrospective reviews, Andrew Crump of Fangoria found that the film on paper seemed like "Japanese genre cinema at its wackiest" but was more like a Scooby-Doo mystery and was "shockingly middle of the road verging on tame" and concluded that the film was "a movie of bungled opportunity with plenty to say about the era it was made."[6]

References
  1. Galbraith IV 1996, p. 360.
  2. Galbraith IV 1996, p. 361.
  3. "Monte Ito's Films From the Orient". Honolulu Advertiser. October 18, 1971. p. C6.
  4. "The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch". Arrow Video. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  5. Squires 2021.
  6. Crump 2021.

Sources


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