Yabu No Naka No Kuroneko (aka Black Cat In A Bamboo Grove) (1968)

A mother (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter in law (Kiwako Taichi) wait for the return of her son (Kichiemon Nakamura) from the 16th century Japanese civil wars. But a group of wandering samurai rape and murder them and set their house on fire. With the aid of a mysterious black cat, they become ghosts wreaking revenge on all Samurai. This most elegant of ghost stories is directed by Kaneto Shindo, best known for the excellent ONIBABA which also dealt with two women who lured samurai and murdered them. This one contains a moral conundrum when the two ghosts are confronted with the son and husband who returns from the wars as a glorious samurai who is assigned the task of finding and destroying the "demons" killing the samurai. Will the mother and wife destroy the son or will the samurai kill his wife and own mother? Alluring, unsettling, atmospheric and yet ultimately tragic. The film is beautifully shot in B&W scope by Kiyomi Kuroda with the superb stylized art direction by Takashi Marumo for which the film was a fitting swan song. The underscore by Hikaru Hayashi is one of the best Japanese film scores I've ever heard.