Demon Pond 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Demon Pond 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 25, 2025

A supplement on the 1080 disc in this package suggests that a childhood viewing of John Ford's The Hurricane by (future) special effects wizard Nobuo Yajima made such an impression on the tot that water effects in particular became a certain obsession of his. In that regard, it's not hard to imagine Yajima doing "field research" by watching any number of other relatively early waterlogged films, including Deluge, Noah's Ark and The Rains Came, though this brief list could certainly be augmented by moving forward through the decades to include everything from The Ten Commandments to The Abyss. If the special effects wizard is granted a supplement on this disc in spite of the fact that the special effects sequences are admittedly relatively brief (as mentioned overtly in the very supplement devoted to him), the history behind Demon Pond and perhaps especially its ties to folklore and/or myth and its use of a male performer as not one but two female characters should certainly interest many contemporary eyes, if arguably not for reasons the creators of this 1979 film may have imagined at the time.

If this film is a perceived adaptation of a 1913 play by Izumi Kyōka, its roots certainly predate even that adaptation. A wandering teacher named Gakuen Yamasawa (Tsutomu Yamazaki) almost stumbles into a seemingly mystically hidden village, where he kind of amazingly discovers his old friend Akira Hagiwara (Go Kato). Akira is married to Yuri (Tamasaburo Bando), who is rumored to be a witch. The town is in thrall to the nearby titular body of water, and in fact kind of like the hapless Desmond was tasked with doing in the much later Lost, they must regularly "push a button" (or in this case, ring a bell) in order to prevent their demise. In this case, "Desmond" is Akira, who, along with the rest of the village, believes if the bell is not struck, they will all perish in a flood of, well, Biblical proportions.

Playing out against these mere mortals is a whole separate story involving the water spirits and/or demons themselves, chief among them a so- called dragon princess named Sharayuki (also Tamasaburo Bando). It turns out the demons aren't exactly a happy lot themselves, and they have their own dreams of freedom. When the villagers get the bright idea that sacrificing Yuri to the demons will save them all, Gakuen and Akira of course attempt to intercede. Suffice it to say tragedy ensues for almost all of the humans, while the demons may finally get at least a taste of something other than being submerged.

There's an absolutely dreamlike ambience this film emanates almost like a hypnotic pheromone. Things are so patently strange that a logical analysis of the plot may well be futile. Elements of the story are certainly redolent of Shintoism, but the whole isolated village aspect kind of reminded me of a combo platter of Brigadoon and Lost Horizon, the latter example seemingly especially salient when Gakuen tries to convince Akira to leave, and Yuri seems awfully interested in keeping him where he is.

For those unacquainted with the name of Tamasaburo Bando, he is one of the most celebrated onnagatta, i.e., a male who regularly plays females in kabuki productions. This of course is a longstanding tradition in all sorts of national theaters, including notably Shakespeare back in the day, but for those interested, there are actually several rabbit holes to go down vis a vis Japanese theater in particular and how males and females played various genders at various times.

Demon Pond 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package.

Demon Pond is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Criterion with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. In lieu of an insert booklet, Criterion has included a foldout leaflet which has the following information on the master:

Demon Pond is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Supervised and approved by director Masahiro Shinoda and actor Tamasaburo Bando, this 4K restoration was undertaken by Shochiku and Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc., from the 35 mm original camera negative. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm original soundtrack negative by Shochiku MediaWorX Inc.

Kind of amazingly considering the expressive cinematography of Masao Kosugi and Noritaka Sakamoto, for some reason this 4K version does not offer any HDR grades, and my hunch is that will be the biggest stumbling block for some. I won't spend a lot of time wondering "what if", other than to say the imagery here is so suffused with a variety of both warmer hues like golds and oranges and cooler tones like blues and greens, not to mention a glut of rather dimly lit vignettes, that I can't help but think HDR could have aided and abetted things measurably. As it stands, this is quite similar to the 1080 presentation in terms of palette reproduction, while the increased resolution may have both benefits and detriments. On the plus side, fine detail levels can see at least marginal improvements on things like costumes and even foliage, at least in better lit moments. On the minus side, and I'd personally say this may in fact outweigh the positive side, the film has so many composited opticals which add to an already thick grain field, that the 4K presentation can often feel like (to joke about one of the principal settings) it's underwater (or at least under significant amounts of grain) even when it's not. There's also some noticeable age related wear and tear in the early going in particular, including pretty bad image instability during the credits.

Demon Pond 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Demon Pond features an LPCM Mono track in the original Japanese, though it's probably the sound effects and especially the evocative synth drenched score by Isao Tomita that will be most memorable for many. Tomita's cues will certainly be familiar to anyone who had his old Snowflakes are Dancing or Pictures at an Exhibition albums, and his otherwordly synth tones really add to the dreamlike, quasi- hallucinogenic feel of the film. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Demon Pond 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: The 4K disc in this package sports no supplemental content. The included 1080 disc offers the following bonus items:

• Dudley Andrew (HD; 18:12) offers an interesting "multimedia" history lesson with Andrew discussing a 1913 stage version and this one.


• A Deluge of Special Effects (HD; 12:46) is a winning portrait of Japanese VFX expert Nobuo Yajima by Fabien Mauro. Subtitled in English.

A foldout leaflet with an essay by Michael Atkinson is included.

Demon Pond 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Demon Pond is often quite odd, but it has that kind of half awake liminal feeling you experience right when you're emerging from some kind of fever dream and aren't quite sure what's real and what isn't. Considering there's no HDR on the 4K disc, the 1080 disc in this package may suffice perfectly well, and the supplements on that disc are also quite enjoyable. With caveats noted, Recommended.