In a remote mountain village of Northern Japan, the inhabitants suffer from a severe drought while just above the village a river cascades freely. A young Tokyo scholar uncovers a local legend which holds that the river has as its source a haunted pond, wherein the Dragon God is sealed. Each day, a sacred bell is rung to prevent the Demon Pond from releasing its angry demons and washing away the town. As the day of the young man's visit turns to night, supernatural beings assemble in the magic forest surrounding the Demon Pond; a change is about to occur in the status of this simple village....
This exquisite fable descends from the Kwaidan tradition of Japanese ghost-story films. But director Masahiro Shinoda audaciously mixes in a number of offbeat elements--intense colors of azure, amber and vermillion; awesome location shooting in Brazil and Hawaii--to make The Demon Pond “the most lavish production in Japanese film history” (Japan Society). His most ambitious move was to cast the famed Kabuki onnagata (female impersonator) Tamasaburo Bando in dual female roles as the delicate beauty Yuri, wife of the village bell-ringer; and as the forest Princess Shirayuki, the embodiment of the Dragon God.