The Criterion Collection has recently uploaded a new Closet Picks video in which a notable figure from the film industry raids a closet full of goodies at Criterion and offers comments on the movies he or she selects. This one features four-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe, who reveals that he bought the rights to and almost remade a 1964 Japanese horror masterpiece. In the video, Dafoe says:
My eye goes to one of my favorite films right away, and I'll take it. Onibaba -- a very, very special film. In fact, I wanted to remake it, and I even got the rights for a while, but I couldn't find a way to do it because it's so specific to its time. And I felt like any time I tried to put a spin on it I ruined the source material, so I couldn't do that.
Moments later, Dafoe finds a classic from Nikkatsu Studios made the same year and offers:
Gate of Flesh -- this I watched exhaustively because we used it for material when I worked with a theater company called The Wooster Group, and this was an inspiration and very important for one of our theater pieces. So Gate of Flesh -- I'll steal that!
Who knew that Willem Dafoe had a thing for Japanese movies made in 1964? At any rate, I'll say that anyone who loves Japanese horror classics and Chico Lourant movies that much is A-OK in my book.
