Onibaba

As the film starts, the first shot you see is of grass, and you will have to get used to this, as you will see a lot of waving grasses throughout. In the middle of the frame is a dark hole in the ground. The kanji character for "hole" appears. then the words - "deep and dark - its darkness has lasted since ancient times." Music, a mixture of taiko drums and modern atonal jazz begins. Right from the start, the audience know that they are in for an unsettling film experience. Through the long grass come a pair of fleeing infantrymen, pursued by samurai on horseback. Having found what they think is a place of refuge, they collapse, exhausted, in a hiding place in the grass. As quick as a flash, through the vertical blades of the long grass comes the horizontal blade of a polearm which swiftly despatches both men.
Gingerly, two women, an older one and a younger one, emerge from the grass. They prod, then kick the prone corpses, strip them of their armour and valuables, and then toss their corpses down the hole in the earth we saw at the beginning of the film. They then return to the small hut in which they live, and eat and drink greedily as anyone would after a hard day's work - for their murderous activity is just that - routine. The next day they take their spoils to Ushi, the local black marketeer, to trade for bags of millet (there is no rice in this starved country). Ushi offers to throw in another bag of millet if the older woman will allow him to have sex with her, but she refuses with a disdainful sneer.