Kwaidan (1964) Kaidan (original title)

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 | Snow | Tea | Spirit | Promise

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Michiyo Aratama	...	First wife (segment "Kurokami")
Misako Watanabe	...	Second Wife (segment "Kurokami")
Rentarô Mikuni	...	Husband (segment "Kurokami")
Kenjirô Ishiyama	...	Father (segment "Kurokami")
Ranko Akagi	...	Mother (segment "Kurokami")
Fumie Kitahara	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Kappei Matsumoto	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Yoshiko Ieda	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Otome Tsukimiya	...	(segment "Kurokami")
Kenzô Tanaka	...	(segment "Kurokami")
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")
Noriko Sengoku	...	Village woman (segment "Yuki-Onna")
Akiko Nomura	...	(segment "Yuki-Onna")
Torahiko Hamada	...	(segment "Yuki-Onna")
Jun Hamamura	...	(segment "Yuki-Onna")
Katsuo Nakamura	...	Hoichi (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Tetsurô Tanba	...	Warrior (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Takashi Shimura	...	Head priest (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Yoichi Hayashi	...	Attendant (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Eiko Muramatsu	...	Kenreiinmon (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kunie Tanaka	...	Yasaku (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kazuo Kitamura	...	Taira no Tomomori (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Ichirô Nakatani	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Masanori Tomotake	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Tokue Hanazawa	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Shizue Natsukawa	...	Taira no Tokiko (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Susumu Tatsuoka	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Makiko Kitashiro	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Masakazu Kuwayama	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Mutsuhiko Tsurumaru	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Akira Tani	...	Huntsman #2 (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Yôsuke Kondô	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kiyoshi Yamamoto	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kinji Omino	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Atsuo Nakamura	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Ginzô Sekiguchi	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi") (as Kinzô Sekiguchi)
Akio Miyabe	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Gen'ya Nagai	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Toru Uchida	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi") (as Tôru Uchida)
Hikaru Jinno	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Toshio Fukuhara	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kirô Abe	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Toshiro Yagi	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi") (as Toshirô Yagi)
Yuriko Abe	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Yuri Satô	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kyôichi Satô	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Nobuo Aikawa	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Taiji Kodama	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Nobuaki Maeda	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Teruhiko Shibata	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Haruo Kaji	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Michio Gina	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Seiji Tabe	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Mitsuko Narita	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Noriko Mikura	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Aiko Nagayama	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Michiko Nakahata	...	(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
Kan'emon Nakamura	...	Kannai - a Guard (segment "Chawan no naka")
Osamu Takizawa	...	Author / Narrator (segment "Chawan no naka")
Haruko Sugimura	...	Madame (segment "Chawan no naka")
Ganjirô Nakamura	...	Publisher (segment "Chawan no naka")
Noboru Nakaya	...	Shikibu Heinai (segment "Chawan no naka")
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Old man (segment "Chawan no naka")
Kei Satô	...	Ghost samurai (segment "Chawan no naka")
Shigeru Kôyama	...	(segment "Chawan no naka")
Jun Tazaki	...	Kannai's Colleague #1 (segment "Chawan no naka")
Junkichi Orimoto	...	(segment "Chawan no naka")
Akiji Kobayashi	...	(segment "Chawan no naka")
Yoshirô Aoki	...	(segment "Chawan no naka")
Isao Tamagawa	...	(segment "Chawan no naka")
Hideyo Amamoto	...	(segment "Chawan no naka")
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Akiko Naraoka	...	Suzue, Kannai's Sister (In a Cup of Tea)

Directed by
Masaki Kobayashi

Writing credits
Yôko Mizuki		(screenplay)
Lafcadio Hearn		(novel) (as Yakumo Koizumi)

Produced by
Shigeru Wakatsuki	....	producer

Original Music by
Tôru Takemitsu

Cinematography by
Yoshio Miyajima

Film Editing by
Hisashi Sagara

Art Direction by
Shigemasa Toda

Sound Department
Hideo Nishizaki	....	sound
Tôru Takemitsu	....	sound designer

Camera and Electrical Department
Akira Aomatsu	....	lighting technician

Other crew
Kiyoshi Awazu	....	title designer

Production Companies

• Bungei
• Ninjin Club
• Toho Company
• Toyo Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Distributors

• Toho Company (1964) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Continental Distributing (1965) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Metropolitan Films (1964) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Continental Home Vídeo (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Filmax Home Video (2001) (Spain) (DVD)
• Home Vision Cinema (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Raro Video (2008) (Italy) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

"Kaidan" - Japan (original title)
"Ghost Stories" - International (English title) (literal title), USA (informal literal title)

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 :-)