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Kwaidan (1964)
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Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 13
Rotten:3
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 44 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: Director Masaki Kobayashi invested five years of preparation before shooting this anthological adaptation of four tales of the supernatural by Lafcadio Hearn. The first, "Black Hair," stars Rentaro... Director Masaki Kobayashi invested five years of preparation before shooting this anthological adaptation of four tales of the supernatural by Lafcadio Hearn. The first, "Black Hair," stars Rentaro Mikuni as a poverty-stricken samurai who leaves his kind wife (Michiyo Aratama) to marry the daughter (Misako Watanabe) of a wealthy official. After years of misery with this woman he returns to his first wife to find a bitter surprise. In the second, "The Woman of the Snow," a woodcutter (Tatsuya Nakadai) and his brother take shelter from a snowstorm in a deserted hut. However, trouble arises when a strange woman (Keiko Kishi) appears. The third, "Hoichi the Earless," features a blind temple musician (Katsuo Nakamura), who is known for his mastery of the ballad of the Heike clan. A samurai ghost bids him sing the ballad at the Heike tomb, and Buddhist priests protect him by painting his body with a depiction of the sacred text. In the last tale, "In a Cup of Tea," a samurai (Ganemon Nakamura) famed for courage, has a recurring vision of the face of another samurai in his tea. Shot entirely on a soundstage to allow the director complete control of the film's palette, it's a stunning display of sensuous color, perfectly suited to these otherworldly tales of the macabre. Takemitsu's "musique concrete" score is eerily appropriate. [More]
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentaro Mikuni, Katsuo Nakamura, Ganemon Nakamura
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentaro Mikuni, Katsuo Nakamura, Ganemon Nakamura, Michiyo Aratama, Keiko Kishi
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
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Release:
Jun 30, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Note: New and improved English subtitle translation
- Single Side - Dual Layer - RSDL
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
- Letterbox - 2.35
Audio:
- Dolby Digital Mono - Japanese
- Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Reviews for Kwaidan
A colorfully exotic offering but lacks the visceral power to explore the horror genre.
Kwaidan's haunting poetry is conveyed not only in its beautiful color images, but also through the chilling soundtrack.
Visually beautiful and with some cool special effects, this is a quartet of Japenese horror ghost stories that have very few scares, although there is the odd frisson of eeriness in a couple of them.
The first episode builds an effective mood through its elliptical action and long, slow tracks through empty rooms, but this 1965 film soon levels off into academic stylization.
Magnífico do ponto de vista estético, conta com uma direção de arte brilhante e quadros compostos com inspiração absoluta, além de ter um inventivo design de som. Mas a montagem adota um ritmo excessivamente arrastado que torna a narrativa entediante.
It is a compendium of four ghost stories adapted from Lafcadio Hearn, so determinedly aesthetic in their design and style that horror frissons hardly get a look in. Very beautiful, though.
It can still hold its own against the new generation of horror films still sourcing it. Well worth a look.
Couple these sound effects and voices with some remarkable pictorial images and the consequence is a horror picture with an extraordinarily delicate and sensuous quality.
They're not likely to scare you outright, but hopefully you too can appreciate the craft and artistry with which they are told.
...the ghostly samurai court listening to Hoichi, and the samurai battle effectively form visual haikus that remain in the mind’s eye
a visually ravishing film that uses dazzling color palettes and carefully composed widescreen photography to bring the viewer into an entirely supernatural world
We've grown accustomed to more violent, more suspenseful, and scarier stories than these, but there's no questioning the quality of this film.
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