Closing out the July’s Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema titles is Kaneto Shindô’s 1964 eerie classic Onibaba, a visceral, hypnotic tale set in Japan’s medieval past, where two women – an older mother and her young daughter-in-law – live in isolation, killing lost samurai and trading their armor for food. But when a mysterious mask enters their world, desire, jealousy, and supernatural terror take root.

Shot in striking black and white, Shindo’s film blurs the lines between eroticism and horror, realism and folklore. Tall reeds sway ominously, the wind howls, and the mask – once worn to intimidate- becomes a symbol of inner torment and karmic consequence. It’s one of the most iconic and unsettling films of Japanese cinema.

Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema is a curated 12-film trip through the evolution of Japan—from the quiet post-war resilience of the 1940s all the way to the radical reinventions of the 1990s. Each Monday this July-September, we will explore a new facet of this incredible nation’s cinematic journey throughout the 20th century. All films will be presented in their original Japanese language with English subtitles, at a reduced ticket price of $8.