Remember in The Seven Samurai when the villagers reveal that they have weapons and armor taken off the Samurai they've killed? I don't know why the Samurai were so upset about that. Killing people is pretty much the name of the game for them.
Onibaba is about a woman and her daughter-in-law who kill samurai, take their armor and weapons and trade it for food with a guy who sells it to the armies who are wrecking the country with a civil war.
After all the movies presenting samurai as invincible supermen, it's refreshing to see a couple of peasant women killing them.
I guess The Seven Samurai had it both ways. Some of the Samurai were ubermenschen and others you could kill with a rake.
According to the subtitle under the title, Onibaba means "Devil Woman", but I don't know why they would call her that. All her actions seem reasonable and moral enough, all things considered.
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