User reviews

In "Living Skeleton"'s surprisingly brutal opening scenes, we see a group of modern-day pirates indiscriminately massacring a bunch of passengers with machine gun fire - among them a beautiful, Western-looking Japanese woman.

Then a title tells us we've jumped ahead a few years, and that woman's identical twin is now spending time among a shadowy Catholic priest.

Some people go scuba diving where they find, in one of the movie's more memorable moments, skeletons chained to the ocean floor, presumably of the people who died in the beginning of the movie.

The boat the pirates commandeered apparently sunk, but nevertheless seems to return to the shore, and the twin boards it, and some other stuff happens involving unconvincing flying bats.

With the film's beginning, its moody black and white cinematography, and the glowering, impassive actors, I thought the stage was set for a disturbing arthouse Japanese flick like "Sword of Doom" or "Woman in the Dunes".

However, by the end, which involves a mad scientist in a laboratory with lots of opportunities for gruesome deaths, some of which of course involve acid which burns people up quicker than lava might, I began thinking it's more in line with a Jess Franco flick from about the same time. Kikko Matsuoka, who plays the main character, does look a bit like Soledad Miranda.

Problem with this movie was, I had no idea how it got from moody impressionism to full on camp blood-bath. It's pretty confusing, which wouldn't matter so much if the tone was even. It wasn't.

A gang of pirates commandeer a ship and kill everyone on board. Three years later in a seaside village, a Catholic priest (Masumi Okada) has offered shelter to Saeko (Kikko Matsuoka) as her twin sister, Yoriko (also Matsuoka) has disappeared with her new husband at sea.

Professor Wheeler Winston Dixon referred to the Criterion Collection's eclipse set, calling the film "the most accomplished and sophisticated of the quartet in terms of its visual structure and narrative" and along with 'Genocide', "easily the most interesting entries".

Indeed, the use of shadows and tints reminds me of some of Jacques Tourneur's best work, and accompanied by the music which seems quite atypical of Japanese film, this stands out as quite a one-of-a-kind film. Definitely a must-see, and it was wise of Criterion to single it out for wider inspection.

Made a decade before Carpenter's "The Fog", this is clearly that film's inspiration, and what glorious pulp horror it is.

A scar-faced pirate and his cronies gun down a dozen men and several stunningly beautiful women. One woman grips the trouser leg of her killer as she dies, triggering a series of events that will see watery vengeance visited on the miscreants.

This has a mysterious fog surrounding a quiet coastal town, a haunted ship of the dead, a local priest who carries a terrible secret and a ghostly, beautiful woman whose appearances strike fear into the hearts of evil men.

It is made with incredible affection for its subject matter and total sincerity. Not once does it wink at its audience or betray its genre origins. No, it is proud to be a pulp horror film.

Some of the special effects are not exactly believable, but these are part of the key to the film's charm. There is some model work of a ship crossing the ocean shot through clouds that is both incredibly artificial and incredibly beautiful. The "living skeletons" themselves, though not expertly incorporated into the central narrative, are beautiful.

Highly recommended for true lovers of fantastique films.

This is not a bad ghost story, though some better editing and a couple of transitional scenes would have helped the viewer a bit. A group of vicious modern pirates board a ship carrying millions of dollars in gold. They aren't satisfied just pillaging; they kill everyone on board in a cold-blooded slaughter. We now go forward three years to a young woman whose twin sister was on that ship. She has that weird connection that twins sometimes do, feeling the terror her sister felt. One night she sees the ship (even though it had been sunk) and boards it. She sees the ghost of her sister and learns the story of the massacre. She is no bent on destroying the guys who were responsible. The rest of the movie involves her gaining revenge. She lives with a priest who took her in when her parents died. Anyway, it is kind of satisfying. There are some elements at the end that just don't work very well, involving a horrible acid that was invented by the doctor on the ship. It's an interesting effort, better than most of its ilk.

This low-budget horror movie very much benefits from the typically excellent craftsmanship expended even on such low-end efforts by major studios in Japan at the time. I can't concur with others that it reminded me at all of "The Fog," apart from liekwise involving ghostly vengeance for death at sea. The script is a bit confused, particularly once we get towards the end, when in addition to the supernatural element it turns out there's a sort of mad-scientist thing going on--making for a narrative agenda rather sillier and more overloaded than this movie can pull off.

Still, that doesn't matter so much, because the atmospherics are very effective in their widescreen B&W handsomeness, despite the fairly cheap FX. (Particularly the kind of tank miniatures more familiar from Godzilla-type films, with "stormy seas" clearly not much more than bathtub splashing in slo-mo.) The performances are decent enough, and while the story isn't terribly scary, there's a nice mood of creeping dread--you can almost feel the ocean air permeating inland, bringing ghosts and violent death with it.

This film blends traditional Japanese horror elements with psychological implications and offbeat twists on western horror iconography, including Christian religion and a touch of the mad scientist trying to preserve life after death. It begins with a massacre on a ship by hijackers stealing a gold shipment. Three years later the troubled twin sister of one of the victims is living in a church, getting strange sensations her sister is still alive. While scuba diving with her boyfriend they discover a series of chained skeletons, and soon after she is drawn to the now-derelict ghost ship where the opening tragedy took place, learning what she needs to go through with her own revenge plans.

What sets The Living Skeleton apart is its use of stark, black-and-white cinematography, which amplifies its gothic horror roots. The ominous ocean setting and the ghostly imagery of the skeletons on the ship create a chilling, claustrophobic atmosphere. The film is filled with striking, symbolic visuals, such as a skeleton chained to the ship's mast, contributing to a surreal and nightmarish tone. The sea, often seen as a mysterious and untamed force, becomes a crucial character in itself-an embodiment of both death and revenge.

Being the only film directed by Hiroshi Matsuno, The Living Skeleton has often been described as the love child of David Lynch's Twin Peaks and John Carpenter's The Fog. An atmospheric tale of revenge from beyond the watery grave, mixing elements of ghost stories, doppelgänger thrillers and mad-scientist flicks, married only by its unconventional direction, editing and beautiful black-and-white photography. From Matsuno's direction to Noburo Nishiyama's Morricone-esque music, it's an engagingly haunting, wild and eerie work, interspersed with bouts of violence and grim murder, all led by Kikko Matsuoka's incredible performance. Representing the peak of Shochiku's dalliance with horror convention, The Living Skeleton is a chilling and genuinely unnerving black-and-white update of the bygone Kaidan tradition.

The Living Skeleton (1968) is a Japanese horror film that I recently watched on a random streaming service. The storyline follows a young lady who moves to a town that is haunted. As she researches the events she discovers the tale of a ship that was sunk by local pirates.

This movie is directed by Hiroki Matsuno (Sword: Flower-Strewn Path of Courage) and stars Asao Koike (Throne of Blood), Nobuo Kaneko (Ikiru), Kô Nishimura (Yojimbo) and Kikko Matsuoka (Black Lizard).

Watching this there's a good chance John Carpenter got a lot of ideas for The Fog from this movie. This movie is made pretty clever with some fantastic cinematography and some fun underwater scenes, especially the skeletons. The skeletons looked like sugar skulls. The bats in this reminded me of a Vincent Price movie and the corpses are well created. Kikko Matsuoka delivers a strong performance as the main character and the last 15 is entertaining.

Overall this is a worthwhile addition to the horror genre and a fun watch for fans who enjoyed The Fog. I would score this a solid 6.5-7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Mostly of the reviewers posted here that movie was an inspiration to Carpenter's The Fog, I would go beyond including the picture Alvin Rakoff's Death Ship released in 1980 starring by George Kennedy and Richard Crenna, approaching the same premise as The Fog too, this one a low budge Japanese presentation with old fashionable special effects and ghost ship miniature clearly noticed.

The plot is about a Ship called Dragon King that carries a huge cargo of gold from Japan to China, but during the journey five crew members settle a mutiny killing the captain, cabin crew and the whole passengers, letting alive just a young girl, which his husband was a Ship's doctor, she was raped and killed by them afterwards as well, this girl actually is twin of a girl who lives under the protection of a priest on a catholic church in Japanese spot shore,

Three years later strangest things begin to happen, those five criminals that stolen the gold one by one are being killed by countless ways, always a female ghost appears on those place whereby the murders took place and whenever it happened the ghost ship suddenly appears on the fog nearby,

However just two members still alive weren't recognized the female ghost, the first one is owner of a nightclub and the unknown is uncovered by him, thus instead to wanting for the unavoidable death, they decide be back at dead ship to clarify the mystery.

Docked in fine black & white photography that underpins the creepy atmosphere to such an extent that further strengthens the picture, it explains how it stablished a patten to western filmmakers!!

Thanks for reading.

Resume: First watch: 2022 / Source: DVD / How many: 1 / Rating: 7.5.

The title of "The Living Skeleton" is actually misleading,because there isn't living skeleton in the film.However the underwater sequence of meeting skeletons is truly unforgettable.The film opens with bang:there is a massacre on board of a ship which predates recent US hit "Ghost Ship".There are striking similarities between Hiroshi Matsuno's film and John Carpenter's famous horror hit "The Fog":a quiet coastal village surrounded by the fog,a local priest with a creepy secret and a ghostly ship with bleached skeletons on board,which haunts villagers on the land.There is also a bit of subtle necrophilia thrown in and a female ghost with long black hair."The Living Skeleton" written by Kyuzo Kobayashi of "Goke Bodysnatcher from Hell" fame surely is delirious experience.It's a crying shame that it's currently out of print.If you liked it be sure to check out obscure Austrian horror film "Dark Echo" from 1977,which may also inspired "The Fog".

In the shocking opening scene of The Living Skeleton, a group of ruthless hijackers gun down the entire crew of a ship and make off with a fortune in gold bullion. Three years later, the criminals are killed one by one by what appears to be the ghost of one of their victims, a young woman who they also raped. In reality, it is the rape victim's identical twin sister Saeko (Kikko Matsuoka) who is bumping off the bad guys, driven by the spirit of her murdered sibling.

The plot for this movie is wonderfully daft, with underwater skeletons (the prop guy clearly having very little knowledge of what a skeleton really looks like), bat attacks (hilarious rubber bats on strings), and several twists, one of which involves a ridiculous Scooby Doo style unmasking, and another that throws a mad scientist into the mix. The sheer preposterous nature of proceedings makes this Japanese horror a treat for those who enjoy their films a bit bonkers.

Director Hiroki Matsuno spends much of the running time building up a doom-laden atmosphere (aided by a haunting Morricone-style score), but abandons all of that for a finalé that dials up the craziness, with the bludgeoning of a dog, a cold-hearted strangulation, several characters dissolved in acid, and a spot of ambiguity, Saeko possibly being a ghost herself by the end. The violence is surprisingly graphic for 1968 (especially a dagger in an eye).

As others have noted, the opening scene is reminiscent of Ghost Ship (2002) and the film may have provided inspiration for John Carpenter's The Fog (1980).

Oh my. I was rather unprepared for that moment early on when Saeko and Mochizuki discover skeletons underwater. I assume meager allocation of resources by Shochiku are the reason these, other bones, and select other effects are so cartoonishly artificial. This, after startling violence in the opening scene, which swerves into happy-go-lucky vibes, with curt, unnatural, eyebrow-raising plot development to follow. Further considering the original music of Nishiyama Noboru - a flavorful but at best curious accompaniment for the proceedings, sometimes replete with harmonica and reverb-heavy guitar - and within only the first quarter of the length 'The living skeleton' quite comes off as a B-movie not unlike the less serious side of contemporary horror coming out of the United States. Mind you, there's certainly nothing abjectly wrong with this, but for all the earnest genre fare to come out of Japan, from kaiju to tokusatsu to modern J-horror, the last thing I expected was a flick that could rather be mistaken for a Roger Corman production. That's not to say that 'The living skeleton' is a pure romp, but one should surely be aware of what they're getting into.

The thrust of the picture reveals itself very quickly, and all that's left is to sit back and enjoy the ride. Provided one is open to horror that is built for entertainment more than thrills, this is fairly good overall, if well short of "top of the line." The writing is unremarkable but solid as a ghost story and a tale of vengeance; Matsuno Hiroshi's direction is capable in bringing the tableau to bear, and likewise the acting. It's just that for a plot that could have easily enough been realized as either pure camp or meaningful horror, the feature is awash in a tone that sort of tries to split the difference. Those moments that are ostensibly more somber are consequently diminished, and elsewhere this is just kind of hokey. With practical effects, tangible creations, occasional post-production additions, and even some sound effects all being variable in their quality, the viewing experience is neither as fun nor as gripping as it might have been if Matsuno, producer Inomata Akira, or someone else involved had just decisively chosen a path for the film to take. Emphasizing the point, these factors combine with uneven writing (the number of figures being targeted somehow seems to change over the course of the runtime), and a major tonal shift at a discrete juncture, to result in eighty minutes feeling longer than they are.

The title is pretty well made all told, and even those facets that are sometimes less sure-footed also have moments to shine. Far from the worst examples, some effects are quite superb, and the special makeup; in a broader sense the costume design, hair, and makeup are swell, as are the production design and art direction, and the filming locations. Nishiyama's score is sometimes a perfect complement for the saga, and more than not the cast give capable performances, including not least foremost star Matsuoka Kikko. The narrative really is excellent, ripe for cinematic telling, even if there are distinct weaknesses in the writing all the way through to the end. So it's just unfortunate that the piece is very much all over the place with unmistakable tonal irregularity, inconsistent quality, stark disparity in levels of violence, awkward shifts in the foci of the plot and in treatment of characters, at least one undeniable unexplained turn, and more. As it exists 'The living skeleton' is good, with definite strengths showing themselves at some points, but it direly needed more mindful, judicious, even-handed care, with which it absolutely could have been better. By all means, the movie is worth watching if you have the chance to check it out, but don't go out of your way for it, and know that it's rough with flaws. So long as one can abide such imperfections, 'The living skeleton' is a decent time when all is said and done.

Fantastic visuals, beautiful black & white cinematography, creepy music, an attractive lead actress and striking sets yet Living Skeleton is incoherent at times and difficult to follow. I've seen it once but will need to watch it again to pick up some plot points I didn't catch. Not particularly spooky, there are some repulsive moments and an unpleasant shot of the mad killer bludgeoning a Collie with a candlestick. For a better, creepier Japanese horror film, try to catch House of Terrors 1965.

With similarities to John Carpenters' "The Fog", as well as other haunted ship films such as "Death Ship", "The Living Skeleton" relates a tale of passengers of an ocean liner massacred by modern-day pirates. Three years later, those pirates are attempting to live "normal" lives, but they will NOT be safe from the vengeance of their victims - in particular, bride-to-be Yoriko (Kikko Matsuoka) and her identical twin sister Saeko (also played by Matsuoka).

A thoroughly entertaining story that takes some great turns, "The Living Skeleton" has some very potent atmosphere, and a plot bursting with feelings of doom and gloom. The performances are excellent, the black & white widescreen photography (by Masayuki Kato) is impressive, the music (by Noboru Nishiyama) haunting - at times it's reminiscent of spaghetti Western music - and there is some juicy gore as well. (There are some effectively NASTY deaths in this one.)

Laying aside the image of the chained-together skeletons hanging in the ocean depths (it's not as spooky as I would have liked it to be), "The Living Skeleton" is one of the best horror films that I've seen lately. And it has a strong emotional component to go with the chills. All in all, it's well worth a look.

Eight out of 10.