Kaidan (1964)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Masaki Kobayashi

Writers:

Yôko Mizuki (screenplay)
Lafcadio Hearn (novel)

Release Date:

22 November 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror

Plot:

This film contains four distinct, separate stories. "Black Hair": A poor samurai who divorces his true love to marry for money...

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Ghost | Woodcutter | Musician | Husband Wife Relationship

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Michiyo Aratama	...	First wife (segment "Kurokami")
Misako Watanabe	...	Second Wife (segment "Kurokami")
Rentaro Mikuni	...	Husband (segment "Kurokami") (as Rentarô Mikuni)
Kenjiro Ishiyama	...	Father (segment "Kurokami") (as Kenjirô Ishiyama)
Ranko Akagi	...	Mother (segment "Kurokami")
Fumie Kitahara	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Kappei Matsumoto	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Yoshiko Ieda	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Otome Tsukimiya	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Kenzo Tanaka	...	(segment "Kurokami") (as Kenzô Tanaka)
Kiyoshi Nakano	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Mi nokichi (segment "Yuki-Onna")
Keiko Kishi	...	Yuki the Snow Maiden (segment "Yuki-Onna")
Yûko Mochizuki	...	Minokichi's mother (segment "Yuki-Onna")
Kin Sugai	...	Village woman (segment "Yuki-Onna")

Also Known As:

Ghost Stories (International: English title) (literal title) (USA)
Hoichi the Earless
Kwaidan (USA)
Weird Tales

Runtime:

183 min | Argentina:162 min | Spain:182 min (25 fps) (DVD edition) | USA:125 min | Japan:161 min (cut version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | UK:PG (uncut version) | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Bungei

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences (2006) (V)

marvellous fairy-tales: directorial and cinematographic fabulous

Cinematographer Yoshio Miyajima did a marvellous job, although most of the visuals in this masterpiece are obviously invented by Kobayashi. It is clearly studio-work, but Kobayashi turns that to his advance by making the most marvellous background paintings I've ever seen in a movie and his virtuosity comes to full exposure in the light effects that are fabulous for such an old film. That together with the beautiful colors creates a mesmerizing and sometimes terrifying experience. 'Marco the magnificent' (Patelliere&Howard, 1964) reminded me of the visuals in Kwaidan, because of the beautiful environmental shots and because of the (supposed) history of mixture of eastern and western stories. Forget that movie instantly plz. Another film that has nothing to do with this one, but is brilliant and comparable only because of the episode structure, the fairy-tale nature and great cinematography is Kaos (Taviani, 1984).

Kwaidan has such a haunting effect because of the scary music and the sound effects are unnerving(-ly edited). Some call it horror. I thought the pace was rather slow for horror, but it is a film that does not let go easily. The actors (one of which is Takeshi Shimura) convince enthusiastically and they too make it an entertaining film. According to the user-rating this is Kobayashi's least interesting work of these three: Joi-uchi, Seppuku, and Kwaidan. I can't wait to see the other two, although I don't think they can surpass this masterpiece.

10 points out of 10 :-)