Hino Hideshi Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan

I learned about the story of "The Ghost of Yotsuya" thanks to a classic movie that I watched a few years ago. I was quite interested in this relatively unknown OVA they made of it, since it is difficult, if not practically impossible, to find it subtitled.

The first thing to clarify is that it does not have animation; it is a sequence of images that tell the legend. The drawings are nothing special, very simple, but they tell the story very effectively. My knowledge of Japanese is very basic, but the images explain the story well. However, I recommend that you read the story first ... if you plan to watch this OVA without subtitles.

Being a story that is already known, there isn't much I can highlight about it. It's a story that deals very well with betrayal from the Japanese mythical point of view and the consequences that it brings with it. For a production from the year 2000, it lacks many things. I think the 80s version looks much better done than this version.

I originally learned of this OVA from browsing Letterboxd and was very intrigued by the cover art. I watched this without subtitles and was able to understand the general gist of what was happening. I'd recommend looking into the story of Yotsuya Kaidan before watching this OVA, otherwise I think you'd be pretty confused if you don't know japanese. My favorite part was definitely Oiwa's voice acting. Kyouko Togawa did a really stellar performance as her and every time I felt chills it was because of her. I did find myself growing a bit bored while watching, tho. It's definitely not the most interesting watch. ... I think this is partially because of the lack of animation. I often felt like it lingered too long on one image at times when nothing frightening was happening.