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Kwaidan

Kaidan

Japan

1965

161 Min
Color
2.35:1
Japanese
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
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DIR Masaki Kobayashi

PROD Shigeru Wakatsuki

SCR Yôko Mizuki, Lafcadio Hearn

DP Yoshio Miyajima

CAST Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentarô Mikuni, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi, Jun Hamamura, Katsuo Nakamura, Tetsurô Tanba, Takashi Shimura, Kan'emon Nakamura, Noboru Nakaya, Osamu Takizawa, Haruko Sugimura

ED Hisashi Sagara

MUSIC Tôru Takemitsu

SOUND Hideo Nishizaki

Cannes (In Competition): Special Jury Prize

Synopsis

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, Kwaidan features four nightmarish tales in which terror thrives and demons lurk. Adapted from traditional Japanese ghost stories, this lavish, widescreen production drew extensively on Kobayashi’s own training as a student of painting and fine arts. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹, Kobayashi Masaaki, February 14, 1916–October 4, 1996) was a Japanese director.

Among his films is Kwaidan (1965), a collection of four ghost stories drawn from the book by Lafcadio Hearn, each of which has a surprise ending.

Kobayashi also directed The Human Condition, a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist. The total length of the films is over 9 hours. Other notable films include Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967). Harakiri won him an award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, solidifying his place in the history of cinema.

He was also a candidate for directing the Japanese sequences for Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) but instead Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda were chosen.

Kobayashi, himself a pacifist, was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, but refused to fight and refused promotion to a rank higher than private. —Wikipedia 

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Egodzilla

24Jan13

Brilliant ... Not even to mention the visuals. Had hard time deciphering if shot in studio or nature sometimes ...

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Lee Bullitt

31Oct12

definitely enjoyed 'Hiochi the Earless' and 'The Woman in the Snow' most, of the 4 vignettes. All in all, it was a stunning compilation. ☽ ☾ Read my full review here: http://liveforfilm.tumblr.com/post/34687211570/kwaidan-1965

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BleepyBloop

6Sep12

I first caught this on tv in the mid 90's and it completely fried my brain. Then in Japan I bought an amazing lavish laserdisc at Tower Records in Shibuya, which I have kept because it's so beautiful. I bought an LD player just to play it. The grade on the Jap version is more flat than the Criterion one which is frankly a fuck up. Go for the Masters of Cinema version, it matches my LD as far as artistic intent.

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Jakob Larsson

1Aug12

dat dere cinema.

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Echoes #2

By Daniel Kasman on February 4, 2012

Oh! the mysteries found in a cup of tea. Mysteries by Kobayashi and Ruiz.

read article
W184

Lost Sounds and Soundtracks. Masaki Kobayashi's "Kwaidan" by Toru Takemitsu

By Ben Simington on December 9, 2010

Takemitsu’s dread score distorts the director’s abundant visual imagination into something more like superstition.

read article

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Reviews

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Spirits as part of every day life

By lolo341 on March 6, 2011

As if to convey the sentiment that spirits are a part of every day life, in Kwaidan there is no rhyme or reason as to why spirits appear or go away. For this reason alone, much of the horror is psychological…  read review

A Movie About Storytelling

By Duncan Gray on March 22, 2010

There are ghost stories and there are horror movies, and Kwaidan (1964) is emphatically the former. It has not come to jolt or thrill, but to haunt. The ghosts in Kwaidan are words, thoughts, and…  read review

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KWAIDAN VS. KWAIDAN

30 posts by 15 people 10 months ago

Kwaidan

42 posts by 20 people over 3 years ago

DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.