The film clearly draws from Akinari’s stories by incorporating an enchanting beautiful woman and having the main character end up with nothing in the end. This sense of enchantment is quite different from our definition today. Enchantment has this sort of positive connotation to it– think fairy tales– but in these stories, enchantment is more closely related to sorcery and witchcraft (negative). The mystical beings in the movie and in the story were seen as illusions from the devil which had to be exercised by a priest. Both of these stories continue to “enchant” the reader/viewer because they have this sense of morality to them. It is almost as if Akinari is trying to warn the reader against the sinful act of lust and temptation. But these stories don’t enchant the reader, instead I think of them more as, “they are so horrific, but I can’t stop watching/reading”. The stories have this effect of drawing you in just as the devil woman draws in the man with her beauty.

Akinari’s story of a man falling in love with a woman/the devil is stitched into the movie very effortlessly. I think the movie was in fact more powerful than the story, because at the end the man was left with nothing, except for his child. The movie really made it clear how lost the man was in this parasitic relationship with the beautiful woman, especially when he realizes how delusional he had become when he realized his wife had died.

These stories can be applied in our world today in a variety of ways. As humans we struggle with temptation everyday and most of the times, I would say that temptation wins. But this story is more than just temptation; it’s about how humans are so selfish and egotistical. The fact that this man sees a beautiful woman and creates this notion that she is madly in love with him, is a little self righteous.