Owl (2003)

Owl (2003) unfolds in the early 1980s, focusing on two women, a mother and her daughter, who are the last inhabitants of a deserted farming village named "Kibogaoka," originally established for Japanese returnees from Manchuria. Facing starvation, the women resort to desperate measures. When one contemplates consuming a lizard, the other proposes a more lucrative survival strategy. They contact a nearby dam construction site, offering their services as prostitutes. A worker visits, engages with the mother, and is subsequently served a mysterious concoction. The drink causes him to foam at the mouth, emit strange noises, and ultimately perish. The women dispose of his body and celebrate their newfound wealth, using the money to secure food and restore utilities. They repeat this process with subsequent visitors, including an electrician, a plumber, and a construction worker, accumulating more funds and planning global travel once they reach 1.5 million yen. A policeman arrives to investigate the disappearances, but before he can be dealt with, the son of the village's founder appears. The daughter, rather than the mother, engages with him, and he leaves after borrowing money for his planned suicide. The women then eliminate the dam construction boss. The suicidal son returns, expressing his desire to marry the daughter. The policeman reappears, and the three men confront each other, resulting in their deaths. The women celebrate with beer and song. A year later, a group of middle-aged men discover the nine bodies, one in each house of the village, as they prepare to demolish the abandoned settlement.