In the first postwar film version of Japan's favorite chiller--from the 1825 play Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (commonly called Yotsuya Kaidan) about the ghost of Oiwa--director Keisuke Kinoshita surprised audiences not with the presence, but with the absence of Oiwa's ghost. Moreover, he portrays Oiwa's murderer, her husband Iyemon--traditionally a ruthless brute who kills his wife in order to marry a rich merchant's daughter--as a weak and destitute samurai who is trying desperately to live and reluctantly sacrifices his wife in the process. The avenging ghost of Oiwa is here clearly an illusion brought on by his guilt and remorse. Tadao Sato writes, "(Iyemon's weakness) is poignantly conveyed in those memorable scenes where his repeated attempts to kill Oiwa are thwarted by her trusting looks. Through the faint-hearted Iyemon we are shown that samurai can also be reduced to trembling wrecks in certain situations despite the airs they assume in positions of authority" (Currents in Japanese Cinema). In a postwar period when the sight of destitute people struggling to stay alive was no apparition, Kinoshita's concern was with the human elements in the oft-told tale. The cast was made up of Shochiku's best, with Kinuyo Tanaka portraying both Oiwa and her sister Osode, and Ken Uehara as Iyemon.