The Living Skeleton (1968)

AFG presents at the Club (AKUMB, 40 Tumanyan Str.)
April 4 – 25, 2017 Film Program
WHEN HORROR CAME TO SHOCHIKU

Following years of a certain radioactive beast’s domination at the box office, many Japanese studios tried to replicate the formula with their own brands of monster movies. One of the most fascinating, if short-lived, dives into that fiendish deep end was the one by Shochiku, a studio better known for elegant dramas by the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. In 1967 and 1968, the company created four certifiably batty, low-budget fantasies, tales haunted by watery ghosts, plagued by angry insects, and stalked by aliens—including one in the form of a giant chicken-lizard. Shochiku’s outrageous and oozy horror period shows a studio leaping into the unknown, even if only for one brief, bloody moment.

* Programs are free of charge, but seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.
* Films are screened in original language with English subtitles.
* DVDs for the program are from Khachatur Aloyan’s (USA) collection.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 20:00
KYÛKETSU DOKURO-SEN (The Living Skeleton)
1968, Japan, 80 min, Horror, DVD
Director: Hiroki Matsuno
Stars: Kikko Matsuoka, Yasunori Irikawa, Masumi Okada
In this atmospheric tale of revenge from beyond the watery grave, a pirate-ransacked freighter’s violent past comes back to haunt a young woman living in a seaside town. Mixing elements of kaidan (ghost stories), doppelgänger thrillers, and mad-scientist movies, Hiroshi Matsuno’s The Living Skeleton is a wild and eerie work, with beautiful widescreen, black-and-white cinematography.