Akira Nutahara (Atsuro Watabe) has arrived on Shikoku island to be a schoolteacher. He has fallen in love with Miki (Yûki Amami), an older woman and paper maker who cares for an urn that is said to carry Inugami, a forest wolf spirit. Her family is set to commemorate the 900 Year Rites in which they will celebrate the forest and their past connection to it, as well as the fact that they still own much of the land.

Miki’s family has also guarded these spirits and kept the village safe from nightmares, but with the arrival of Akira, supernatural events have been occurring. After she and Akira have a romantic cave moment, she begins to grow younger and tells the spirit of her mother that she no longer wants the responsibility of keeping the spirits and wants to leave the island with Akira.

It also turns out that due to the curse placed upon the family, they have become intermarried or have to find men that have no idea of what the family must endure. No woman can leave the island and even if they try, they always return. The family patriarch Takanao (Kazuhiro Yamaji) keeps TV and radio away from his family and he is the only person connected to the outside world.

The rest of the village grows angry that there have been several accidents and deaths, which they blame on the family, and prepare to kill them, starting by destroying the studio in which Miki creates her intricate art.

Director Masato Harada has created a gorgeous movie that may not always be horror, but looks at how Japan’s past and superstitions still exist, as well as how family secrets never seem to go away. It’s a slow moving film that demands that you stay with it, but when you get to the scenes where the family goes into the forest and it becomes black and white, your patience will be rewarded.

Inugami is one of the films on Arrow’s new J-Horror Rising set. It has extras including audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Jonathan Clements, an interview with director Masato Harada and an image gallery.

You can buy it from MVD.