Kyuketsu Dokuro-Sen (aka The Living Skeleton) (1968)

A gang of contemporary pirates hijack a ship, kill all the crew and passengers and steal the ship's gold cargo. Three years later, the identical twin sister (Kikko Matsuoka) of one of the murdered passengers sets a plot for revenge in motion. Directed by Hiroshi Matsuno, this supernatural ghost story has a near ingenious plot but it's so poorly constructed and executed that it comes off as a slightly cheesy potboiler. Parts of the film look gorgeous thanks to Masayuki Kato's crisp and atmospheric lensing but some of the effects are embarrassing. I can give the miniature ship in a bathtub a pass but those cheap paper flying bats? Really? There is one clever "twist" near the end that's a shocker even though I guessed it just minutes before it was revealed. But this film really could use a remake by some talented people. In the right hands, this could be a corker of a ghost thriller. With Masumi Okada and Yasunori Irikawa.