The opening frames of Toshio Matsumoto's Demons (1971) showcase an intense blood-orange sunset as it slowly dips into the horizon. As the last rays fade away, the sky transitions into an inky black darkness, which is where the narrative remains for the rest of the runtime. Those colors stay a distant memory as the stark black-and-white photography becomes the audience's home for a little over two hours.
Gengobei (Katsuo Nakamura), a ronin, awakens with a start, covered in sweat. Nightmares full of death and destruction plague his sleep, but thankfully, he has the calming arms of Koman (Yasuko Sanjo), a geisha and his lover, to console him. Koman is the only thing in his life that brings him any pleasure, as he has sold off all of his worldly possessions to pay his rent. Unfortunately, he still owes a lot of money to his landlord and needs a means to pay it. Additionally, Gengobei has been kicked out of his clan and has to scrape together 100 ryō to be allowed back in.
As the lovers finish an evening of lovemaking, Hachiemon (Masao Imafuku), one of Gengobei's retainers, rushes in to tell him some good news. All of the other retainers pooled their money together to amass the funds needed to pay back the clan, and all Gengobei had to do was take it back to his leaders to be accepted into their good graces again. Koman takes note of this info and runs back to her dwelling, cooking up a scheme with her husband Sangorô (Jûrô Kara) to acquire that money.
Despite the dire warnings from Hachiemon, Gengobei is swindled out of his ryō in an attempt to buy Koman out of her contract, and they run off with his savings, leaving him destitute and alone in his empty house to stew over his losses. Gengobei is wholly overcome with regret and anguish, clawing at himself desperately and chopping the air uselessly with his sword. His rage cannot be contained, and it burns inside of him with no outlet, searing his soul, charring what was left of his personality into a black husk unrecognizable to even himself. He has become a demon on this night.
Much of Matsumoto's work is informed by the Japanese New Wave, and his previous full-length film, Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), embraced avant-garde stylings. Demons, structurally, is a much more straightforward film, but it has unusual lighting and staging. The scene's foreground is brightly lit, and the background is left in complete darkness, giving it a play aesthetic. Characters seem to fade in and out of the darkness, which feels closed in and claustrophobic. Everyone has been enveloped in shadows with no escape, and as the film progresses, the gloom continuously moves in until there is hardly any light at all.
When Gengobei finally succumbs to his murderous urges, Matsumoto employs slow-motion techniques, drawing out their brutal deaths into a beautiful ballet of violence, with a few sparse sound effects for punctuation. Gengobei's face is illuminated in such a way as to make him look otherworldly; an oni come to collect his payment in blood. Demons veers strongly into horror tropes at this point as Gengobei becomes a monster essentially; it could even be likened to slasher films in that regard.
Demons is a Shakespearian tragedy through and through. It occasionally likes to torture the audience even further by playing out potential scenarios on screen as daydreams, then rewinding to the previous scene, ramping up the tension and foreboding. It also commits one of the few film taboos on screen with zero remorse, showcasing a death that will chill anyone straight to their bones. There is no pity in this world, no succor, only oblivion. One character laments: "This world is a sea of blood."
--Michelle Kisner