In a Thicket (1996)
Sato's re-imagining of In a Grove, on which Rashomon was based. In this version, instead of a web of lies and agendas, we get a web of desires, perversions like incest, and occult phenomenon like an oracle-demon, hallucinations, and human sacrifice. Once again, the story starts with a detective trying to unravel the story of a man and a woman encountering a bandit-rapist in the woods, but the real story keeps turning out to be unfathomable as layer upon layer of strange motives and events keep turning up.
Released: May 18, 1996
Runtime: 88 minutes
Genre: Mystery, Horror, Fantasy
Stars: Shunsuke Matsuoka, Kaori Sakagami, Shigeki Hosokawa, Hitomi Shiraishi, Ziko Uchiyama, Koh Takasugi
Crew: Hisayasu Satô (Director), Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Original Story), Nobutake Kamiya (Editor), Akiko Ashizawa (Director of Photography), Akio Tashiro (Art Direction), Takashi Natori (Screenplay)